One of the UK’s leading vehicle safety equipment suppliers has set out a five-year business plan that could see it double annual sales and create 50 new jobs — if it could just find the right premises.

Staffordshire-based Spillard Safety Systems, which supports hundreds of customers in construction, plant and transport, has seen sales soar following the first lockdown and is £1.5 million up on the previous twelve months, recording £7 million turnover for the first time in its history.

The family-owned business now has a pipeline of orders that means it needs additional administrative space and VCA-approved workshops that will allow it to fit equipment before vehicles are registered.

Unfortunately, bosses have been refused planning permission at its existing site in Four Ashes and are now searching for a 40,000ft² property in the Cannock area.

Craig Spillard, Spillard Safety Systems’ finance director (pictured above), said: “The last nine months have been phenomenal for the business and this is mainly being driven by demand from the transport sector, which is looking to create safer vehicles while tapping into the benefits of real-time video footage and data.

“Our Spillard Live offering, an intelligent video telematics platform, is proving really popular for companies that want live monitoring, reporting and safety management of their fleets and we have only really scratched the surface with the roll out.”

He continued: “We believe we could double sales by 2025 and this will mean 50 new jobs in total, but the big stumbling block is having the space to match our expansion plans.

“We have been told we will not get planning permission at Four Ashes due to issues around maintaining the look of the Industrial Estate, which seems a little strange to us.

“There also seems to be a real lack of commercial properties that sit in the 40,000ft² bracket that we could move into. Developers seem to have focused on the big industrial sheds and distribution centres and forgot about the need for high-quality space for SMEs looking to grow. If anyone has got something, we would love to talk!”

Spillard Live has been designed with the future of connected vehicle technology in mind, utilising a cloud platform to capture real-time video and analytics simultaneously from multiple cameras fitted to lorries, vans and plant equipment.

It records information, such as vehicle location, speed, impact force and driving style, on a UK-secured system with full GDPR compliance, giving companies the opportunity to monitor fleet/driver behaviour and support training to help prevent accidents. The company will reach a major milestone next month when it hits 10,000 connections to the platform.

Managing director Pete Spillard said: “We have been working on a new improved platform over the last 18 months and are hoping to launch it in the next month. This will involve evolution of the first phase in its development, which will eventually allow cameras, telematics, tacho downloads and tyre pressure monitoring all from a single source, instead of having to use four different systems to obtain the information,” added .

“In addition to this, our technology experts are also in the final phase of testing a new product that, we believe, will revolutionise both the construction and the transport industry. More on this to come!”

Transport has been a massive adopter of Spillard Live, with Lomas Distribution, One-Stop and K Transport all investing in this technology to improve safety, meet compliance and to manage their fleets more effectively.

The system is also being used to help meet The Direct Vision Standard (DVS) and safety permit for HGVs required to enter and operate in the majority of Greater London.