Liz Allan [00:00:04]:
Alright. So today on the podcast, I have got Marc McLoughlin from GreenArc Vehicles and he's based in Blackburn. Nice to meet you, Marc. Finally.
Marc McLoughlin [00:00:14]:
Absolutely. 3rd time's looking. Nice to meet you too. Thanks for having me on.
Liz Allan [00:00:19]:
honestly, it was like catching smoke, wasn't it, really? Wasn't it? Too much of unfortunate events. I know. I know. Exactly. I think Carl was poorly the first time, wasn't I? But listen, we're on now. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for joining me. It's brilliant. So so you're based in Blackburn. Mhmm. And there's a there's a whole story about you've had a name change recently, and and you've kind of been acquired by another organization. Give firstly, give me a bit of your background and how you kind of got into this into what you're doing now if you wouldn't mind.
Marc McLoughlin [00:00:55]:
Well, I'll I'll if you'll indulge me a a quick minute, I'll take you right back to -- Oh. -- college. But I won't I don't don't worry. I won't go I won't go that far back. But My my my father, John, was a bit of an entrepreneur and a business man. I used to just very nicely is very charismatic, and I kinda grew up around that. My brother's in business, but younger brother also in business as well. And kinda guess I always wanted to wear a suit and have a briefcase for work.
Liz Allan [00:01:23]:
So
Marc McLoughlin [00:01:23]:
Not a ball ahead as well. Well, it's prepared. I've got one if they've had it, but I did a year at college doing business and finance because I thought that could facilitate a career in insurance or lending or something along those lines. And I did a year of that, wasn't particularly conformist to a college environment. And it was Unlike school, they tell you where you need be at college leave it to your own devices, and that was a bit dangerous for me as a seventeen year old. And I remember going to the careers office with a friend of mine and we said, look, we we both have enough for college. We wanna get into the world of work. Our friends have got cars and they're going to holidays and things like that. And they said to us, they said, look, we've got 2 businesses locally that have got in touch with us that are looking for apprentices. And he said, 1 is an insurance company and 1 is a motor finance company. Which one do you want? Every literally went like this and swapped them over and I got the motor finance company. and I think it's called Paul, actually Dobson. I think it was Carl Dobson, I think. He got the insurance business. That motor finance company was a business in Blackburn called Haydock Finance. Mhmm. And I spent a few years there as a young kind of cheeky sales chap. Kind of welcoming you know, sorry, getting used to the world of work. And I do know what looking back now is some of the happiest times I've had in business for those years ahead. I can now learn all about you know, dealing with customers and finance applications and credit searches and vehicle valuations. And that was my my grounding in what was a a small privately owned, motor finance business. And that's what kinda set me off in this career, which is well suited to me because I do I I I like vehicles. I like numbers and financial stuff, and so it's really, really suited to my skill set. I'm a salesman by trade. I masquerade as a managing director by day, but I am a salesperson at heart. And, yeah, they're they're in a career in space, that was more like higher purchase dealer introduced loans for private individuals -- Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. -- involved in a little bit of business lending as well, what what people would refer to as like asset finance. So I got involved a little bit in that with finance everything from a a batch of hens to a helicopter for businesses and all sorts of stuff in between. Interesting. But, of course, it was it was There certainly was. It's mostly more to finance based
Liz Allan [00:03:48]:
and kind of With the hens in them?
Marc McLoughlin [00:03:51]:
The hens can come. That's extra extra points on that. I remember that. That was for a farmer. I don't know if we actually did it, but
Liz Allan [00:04:00]:
£250,000
Marc McLoughlin [00:04:02]:
worth of chickens it was. Oh my god. Well, if you think about it, they need to borrow the money from somewhere. Don't they to to finance their stock? So so, yes, got got got involved in all sorts of stuff like that. There's there's a there's a longer career journey, but it takes me around 2 or 3 multi finance providers, including Black Horse, Citibank, They had a division called the Associates. That's an American business. I actually have 3 spells at Haydock Finance, and one guy is another. Yeah. I think I still hold the record there at their office in Blackburn, not too far away from where I am now. I've still got a lot of good friends there actually, and we're keeping such and still do a little bit of business together. But, yeah, my my career up until getting involved in vehicle leasing was mostly to do with dealer introduced prime and subprime car loans. basically. And then the emergence of direct lenders. So what I mean by that? People like Egg And Marks Suspenses And Tesco Loans and people like that that decimated the kind of independent motor finance business the time, probably in the mid nineties or late nineties, probably actually, early 2000. And yeah, if you've got more and more difficult for head out where I was, and I ended up leaving the business. They were on their own journey that kind of restructuring everything. And I went to work for a business in Blackburn called M and H vehicle contracts. Gentlemen called Mark Kindle, who's from the motor trade. He'd worked with a madot finance, had a relationship there. And they were heading up a joint venture with Baucomata Group, which you might be aware of. They they have BMW dealerships and the amount of Maserati and a Harley Davidson dealership and couple of other things as well, a Porsche Preston, the Porsche garage. Right. And the idea was that we bring together the vehicle leasing business and the, you know, the motor dealer group database, and we'd put the bring those together and and do more business. And And, ultimately, that that didn't work out. Spent a few years doing that. And it was at that point that I set up the limited company. And I think this is probably October 2007. We didn't go limited until the following March or October to was me, spare bedroom, typewriter. As we do. Yeah. As we do. Yeah. And that was the start of of the the the the business journey, my my older brother Lee, who up until recently was a 50% shareholder in in in key fleets, or key finance and leasing as as the limited company is called. He he supported me with literally, you know, a laptop and a credit card. and a little bit of personal cash we had. And we started a vehicle leasing business. It wasn't my intention to start a vehicle leasing business at at the I've gone through great lengths to design a an online vehicle retailing business. that did the PCP agreements and insurances and things like that. Yeah. And they almost stumbled into becoming a leasing brokerage in my attempts to try and procure a CRM system in the market -- Right. -- happened across a provider called Calas, so well established in the leasing space. And they had a bit of a plug and play. Here's all your lenders. Here's all your software. Here's your website type opportunity. And by October 2007, I was I was in business. I think I made around 10 grams worth of commission in my 1st month. I thought I should years ago. It's easy. Never made anything like that money again since. But yeah. That was the start of it all, really. And and that was 15
Liz Allan [00:07:39]:
years ago ish. Oh my god. Goodness me. That is some time, isn't it? Good connect. So from Key Fleet, to Greenark. How did how did that happen? How did how did a fleet company and an energy company? So Will you explain who Greenark are and where they're based? But how did you guys decide that this was a match made in heaven?
Marc McLoughlin [00:08:08]:
Didn't say it long if I'm being honest, Liz. I will I will tell you the more elaborate version of that. But, you know, kinda just love at first sight when you know you know, it was a little bit like that. We kind of had a relationship with the guys. Anyway, I mean, Greenark, I'll I'll I'll tell him more detail. But we're now fully owned by Greenark Energy Or Greenark Group depending on which day you ask me. And we're we're a group of of businesses that are helping companies and individuals transition to cleaner energy through different hardware, software technology, but we're very solutions based. Challenge we've got in the next kind of 12 months is pulling together all these different service offerings and product offerings into a gear and offering for our clients. I don't need convincing that there is a need out there for what we do. I've I've had 2 meetings this last week, which absolutely if I needed any confirmation, it would just absolutely confirmed it. But I would say that to go back to your your question originally, how did it happen? I think it happened because decisions that we made in 2000 14, 2015,
Liz Allan [00:09:07]:
2016.
Marc McLoughlin [00:09:08]:
If if if you allow me just to kind of fill the gaps a little bit from Yeah. Do it. I'll I'll do a short version of it. So if you imagine 15 years worth of trading, the first half of that, we were very much like a lot of current leasing businesses we had website and we had prices on there, and we dealt with private individuals and sole traders, some businesses, but really it was quite a remote web based price driven type business. And in I think it was May 2014, We sold 63 vehicles. We had a team of 9 based for our offices in in Blackburn, a place called Chadsworth, lovely part of the world. Have you got a chance to go to it? I'll be sarcastic.
Liz Allan [00:09:52]:
Okay. I didn't know what to say then because I have been to, like, when it's a long time ago. I have friends live there. Don't forgive But
Marc McLoughlin [00:10:00]:
yeah. And and I thought, you know what, we've cracked it. This is the most vehicles we've ever leased in in a month. You know, back then, there was something called stock that you could get as well. So so cars got delivered quite quickly. Your car's ridden out within months. You kinda sold special offers and things like that. And but when I actually factored in all the all the we had associated running the business, acquiring the leads, paying the wages, the rent. Marketing was the big thing. But I think we've made about 4 or 500 quid. in the month of 63 vehicles net. Oh, gosh. And I just remember speaking to my colleague Tony at the time. And I said, look, we've we've got a I'm not doing this for rest of my life. We've got we've got to change our model and and go after business in a different type of way. And And and, unfortunately, in the model that we had at that time, it's high cost of acquisition, low conversion, low margin, And and to be honest, it's a little bit Solus moving offers around the website, 50 per year, a quid there, and, you know, you don't really build any relationships or add any real value up and above providing your customer with a really good value car lease. Might not be the right car, but it's, you know, that they're picking their own vehicles and they're they're they're kinda clicking and checking out sorts. speak. So we had been doing at the same time as running that side of the business. We've been doing more, what I would call, relational b to b type work. So still very much cars and contracts, you know, the same kind of fundamental offering, but we would say in someone's office, and we'd have a coffee and we talk about the 5 or 10 vehicles that they've got perhaps and and maybe we'd we'd put a bit more relationship into it and try and add a little bit more value Mainly through the relationship, the the rest of the value proposition came later. But at that moment in time, it was cars and contracts face to face rather than online price club. and the other margin is a little bit better, but it it was more more more so than the financial return was the fact that you were actually It's more fun. You're working with people on a regular basis. You were you were leasing vehicles to them every quarter instead of once every 3 years. You you've met them face to face. It's what introduced as well at the time into doing that local business networking and and getting involved in it. So from there, 2014,
Liz Allan [00:12:09]:
2015,
Marc McLoughlin [00:12:10]:
started to build an offering for what we perceive to be a need in the small and medium business marketplace. where they have vehicles, but they do not have someone who knows how to look after them to source them to finance them. And drivers repaying and getting courts together was a pain and knowing what to run was a pain. And and then we started getting asking for things like fuel cards or could you help us with license know? Could you rent us a van for a week? So you can imagine we we started off with a a skill level that was in a in in advance, if you will, of of our customer needs. when we had an online website, and then that reversed a little bit. We were back out in front so we were out in front of businesses, and their needs were greater than our skill level and product offering time. So we we really played catch up. We knew it was the right place to be. We it was more in keeping with the skill set that a lot of my team had included myself. and we continue to grow that. Very difficult though, because we went from kinda working in a almost wolf of Wall Street type office environment. So, you know, you could you could see it would say, you know, those films where something kind of rolls across the desert. It's like that quiet. Tumbleweed. Tumbleweed. That's it. I couldn't find the way it did. Tumbleweed. and it was different. And but it was just different way of doing business and and more suited to to what we wanted to do. So we grew that. You you you into now maybe
Liz Allan [00:13:33]:
15, 16, 17, 18.
Marc McLoughlin [00:13:36]:
Some people left the business as when you're making changes within a company. Not everybody comes along for the full ride. Some people are only there for part of the journey, and I've I've experienced that first time myself. I still think I I won't take much credit for many good decisions in business, but certainly the one to change our model was was I'll give myself a pat on the back for that because that was probably the the big one that that I think was a good move for us. And we started to build, so we I worked with a gentleman called Mike Mitchell few years. It was ex owner of a a multimillion pound vehicle leasing business base. It's not big leads called Lease 360. might help us bring the offering on, and we focused on providing solutions for businesses that didn't have a fleet manager or or somebody outside of the office manager d or something like that that got dumped with the vehicles. And throughout that period, going up to 2020, we invested in software. We invest you know, we made a 6 figure investment into the software system that we call Keys. It's our fleet management proposition. We use it to manage our clients' vehicles internally. but also we sell it on subscription and as part of our managed services. So we do own a piece of software. So that's good fun as well if you ever get a chance to own software and be a software business. Fantastic way to invest a lot of money into something. But again, a a good decision for us at that time. We were probably paying a couple of grand a month in subscription fees, use other people's software. So investing in our own that suited our needs that we thought would would be better for our clients as well as it was a good move. So I'm I'm really fast forwarding here, Liz. But take you up to 2020, the dreaded c word, we all knew what we were doing in in this early part of that year. As as a small business with you know, I mean, the average leasing broker, I think, I read has between I don't know. 2 2 5 months cash reserves to to burn to to burn for for the company. We were okay in that respect, but it's quite precarious when you're staring at wage bill to pay, and you're thinking where where's the next pound coming from from business. So I want we weren't on our own with that COVID. It was really challenging for for lots of businesses, and and ours was no different. So we furloughed a lot of the Well, I think that we were down to 2 or 3 of us working in the office out of a team of around 15, 16 people. And we we got on with it, and we did what a lot of people did, which is trying to adapt and embrace home working, and we had three people doing four jobs each, and and we're trying to get through. And I think one of the things that played well for us was because we weren't a transactional business. Our relational clients at dealt with us regularly continue to do business with us. Okay. We couldn't deliver many cars in 2020 because dealers were shut. It was only until the summertime we invented kind of remote what do they call it? Non contact deliveries and and things like that. But a little thing well, it's a little thing. It's a small thing, a small sentence that had such a big impact on our business. and it was the 2020 announcement and no percent benefiting kind for for company vehicles, for EVs. Now electric vehicles for us, I probably could account it on one hand, the amount of electric vehicles released before 2020. Mhmm. and 2 of those were for us to use internally. Of course. So we like the idea of it all. I think that that nobody that certainly in the circles I I was in really anticipated the impact that some of the government incentives both carrot and maybe stick up as well, we're gonna have on behaviors for for companies. But and as you're probably aware, a lot of the the take up for EVs has been in the in the company car market -- Yeah. -- or salary sacrifice arena essentially all within that company car. space. So suddenly, March, April 2020, we've been asked for Teslas and PolStars and such like. Now What we what we cottoned onto very quickly was that our customers were very confused about the whole thing. company car tax, you know, national insurance implications, charging them, you know, funding charge points, fuel reimbursement, our energy reimbursement. And for us, there's a business that had spent the last few years really doubling down on catering to the b to b market, really leaned into our our strength quite a lot because we we were already in the business of demystifying vehicles for businesses. So when EVs came along, we kind of thought, you know what, this is this is a bit of us this. We really like this. I've spent years being ridiculed by some associates of mine that are in the same space as me, vehicle leasing, have a a WhatsApp group with some friends who knew who they are. And for for many years, I was at the brunt of the jokes of kind of focusing on doing b to b stuff as they're all doing lots of volume in b to c. And I think that by at the time when 2020 came along, our our position of moving towards that was was we were rewarded for it very much so because it gave us I feel like we had, you know, 50 yards yet had started a 100 a 100 yard race, you know. So was really, really good for us. And I remember we had a a meeting in the team towards the back end of 2020. And we've been I think we've done your 5th 30, 40, 50% of the cars we were doing were were plugging or e an EV. And we kinda sat around the tables and management team, and we said, if we're not careful, we're gonna get pigeonholed a little bit here as the electric vehicle leasing company. And we said, you know what? That might not be the worst I was the idea that we've ever had to fill this. So don't get me wrong. We we still do a large proportion of fossil fuel vehicles and Fossil fuel is not the enemy. If we came away from fossil fuel today, we would have a big problem, a much bigger problem than than transitioning to EVs. but it's part of the journey. It's part of the picture. It's done done a, you know, fossil fuels and and combustion engines have have done their bit and will continue to do it. as we make these moves to more renewable technologies and and and cleaner energy. So if if I kind of fast forward Liz, you were worried that the might not be enough content. Now you're experiencing the fact that I don't show up, though. I apologize. But but tickets kind of 2021, 2022, which continued on this on this path. We slightly tweaked our partner proposition. Now as we were mentioning our offer earlier, Our partner proposition is what we do for companies that want to manage company car scheme. So it comes with all the things that you would hope a a fleet provider could could give you, which is the software system, accident management provision, pay on use maintenance, if it's required, you can do vehicle rentals, you know, this type of stuff that a business would need that we do. But the real big bit, and I have to give my colleague Dave a lot of credit here. We we spent a lot of time refining what we call our VR PR vehicle replacement program. And that is the kind of the the engine room of the whole managed company car skinks. It gives these businesses who've never had a formal well, generally, never had a formal policy on who can have what vehicle and when and how and all the rest of it. It gives them a framework, a fleet structured approach to doing vehicles. but that has to be costed on a logic that you're probably familiar with called whole life costing or total cost of ownership, which is particularly you know, relevant for EVs because the differentials on on EV total cost of ownership versus diesels and Petrols is like, is vast. So suddenly, we we felt as though this was something our customers needed to understand, and it was something that we could build fleet schemes around. So We repositioned that, we improved it, and we went out to market. I think we signed up more partners, what we call fleets that are committed to us on the 3 year program. then we signed up more in 18 months than we had done in the previous 5 years combined. But it was because we just got really focused. And we had a little bit of external help with that with the a chap called Andy Henderson, who runs a consultancy business in that area. But, yeah, by focusing on what we were best at, got us the best results, absolutely. we launched our salary sacrifice program. Again, another managed scheme. You'd be familiar with this, I'm sure, Liz, employee benefits program to give the rest of your staff might not otherwise get access to a company car, give them access to an EV through the business, really tax efficient, great great thing for business to do, really cool thing from to do. And we launched that. Now and I'm finally getting up to answer your question, which is when I do green art coming to this. Well Yeah. greedark is the offspring, for want of a better word, of of of a more traditional oil business called Craig's Energy. Now, Craig's was formed by Forgive me, I've not been involved with the business that long, but my understanding of it was, you know, 10 to 15 years ago. Chris formed or took over this family business, Craig's energy. and they had grown to I think they've got a fleet of 40 or 50 oil delivery vehicles, tankers, if you will, that distribute their own oil and liquid fuels across the north of England and beyond. So people in in in in these parts and maybe even yourself list from from Halifax. You may have heard of Craig's energy. They're quite a well known animal business. really. Yeah. You mentioned them to anybody in, you know, Halifax or such areas. They've certainly heard of them. they also have 2 or 3 other businesses that again were derived from liquid fuels. They and and they They saw that perhaps the future development of of the of the group needed to also include renewable, your technologies and help clients get into cleaner energy. Now cracks were a customer of ours. They were one of our partners. So in 2022, we were providing them with a lot of vehicles. We built a new scheme for them. with a lot of interaction with our senior management team. We had a good relationship already, certainly with a couple of the eyes that we'd known for many years. And I was saying to you kind of off air, you know, when when you sell a business, if you were to go to an accountant or an adviser and ask what is the process you go through. It will they'll they'll give you advice about how to get ready and prepare for a sale and build value or not. Yeah. We well, we we did we did we went to the due diligence, but it's almost like getting ready before you even start those conversations. We did none of that. We did nothing nothing to do nothing of the sort. We had a conversation with our friends at at Craig's Energy, and they've been dealt with the marketing director who we're very close with. was was talking to me about Greenark, and he was saying, look, as well as, you know, running our oil businesses, we also see that our customers have this transition to make. And We wanna support that, and we started this new business, Greenark. And, yes, it still does some oil based activities, like, there's a fuel card business and a and an oil distribution fuel distribution business in there as well. But we're we're heading down, you know, the the the the green revolution, so to speak. And Ben was waxing lyrical about the fact that they were investing in businesses and looking to acquire and growing exponentially. I think it was just off the back as well of them winning or being listed as a 14 fastest growing company in the Sunday time stamp 100 -- My goodness. -- in their 1st year of trading. again, which was attractive to to to us to get involved with this. And then it was it was a a a chance conversation with Ben, a networking event, and he said, look, you know, we're we're buying businesses and investing in businesses. And I said, does does Chris and Craig and Green Art want to invest in in a fleet leasing company? and therein started the conversations. I think we had a couple of kind of casual casual coffee meetings, which preceded a full kind of 10 hour meeting that myself Chris Bingham and the Dave Turnum, our sales director had. We were all like it was like we'd we'd done ten rounds. We might advise them by the end of it. We were enacted. We'd we'd have post the notes all around on whiteboards. But it but it was on on the premise that they were looking to acquire and invest in businesses in this this space, and they saw us as a as a good fit because of the electric vehicle. folks and the fact that we were consultative and and b to b. So if you remember what I said to you earlier, some of the things we decided to do over the last 10 years are the reasons why an energy company were interested in in getting involved with us. And in particular, some of the things we decided to do since 2020 on the back COVID and benefit and kind, etcetera. So but in the same meeting, you know, there was a a proposal discussed about some investment being made by Greenark in our business to work together. Mhmm. Yeah. And and I specifically asked Chris. I said, Chris, what what what exactly would you want to to to do with us and how would we work together? And Chris described to me almost like a bit of a a vision for the future. And that vision for the future was businesses with car parts full of electric vehicles, with charge points, being fed by solar panels and battery battery storage, heat pump, software to manage the tech knowledge, service provisions and I kind of I think it's only about half a second to say Chris, forget investing. How do we get involved with that? because that sounds awesome. because we we we had already been convinced that that's the way the future was going. Yeah. Yeah. And our conversations with our clients did nothing to dampen our enthusiasm for that that outlook. So, you know, Chris shifted to the c and saying like, oh, that's a different conversation, etcetera, etcetera. And then after a few months of toing and froing and whatnot, we got our clearance from the FCA in November last year. and we became part of of the Greenark group. Okay. So so Greenark at that time and and going forward is is a a business there's a number of different things. Like I said, one of the the key things that we are aiming to do is is at a at a higher level is get involved with businesses and help them make this move to to to green energy. Mhmm. Now that could involve panels or cars or charges or whatever it's gonna involve. The technology is almost just to buy products for what that client needs. We don't sell cars and we don't sell panels. We provide a solution that helps our clients get get on that journey to net 0 and get them where they need to be. So that's where we are at the moment. With the groups continuing to to grow. I thought I worked hard before, Liz. Working double hard now. I have a boss now, so it's all new.
Liz Allan [00:28:22]:
But that's a great world, isn't it?
Marc McLoughlin [00:28:24]:
It is. But you know what? I mean, I I talk a lot less, so people think I've got an ego and I I haven't really. I don't care whose names over the door. I really don't. I just know we can do some awesome work together. And I've always wanted to you know, some people don't buy into the idea of people being interested in having legacy businesses and doing something worthwhile. But I I believe in that, call me a idealist or cheesy or whatever you wanna say. I've always wanted to be involved in a business that did something awesome for customers that we can look back on and say, lord, we did in that in that great. Don't get me wrong, we all want to earn money and progress and, of course, take all that as red. But I think we've got an opportunity within this group of businesses. to, like, actually leave a mark on on the, you know, on the on the country, the world, whatever it's gonna be, where we're doing something that's really, really important for companies and something that, quite frankly, they're com completely confused about.
Liz Allan [00:29:19]:
I'm probably not wrong. Yeah. Yeah. And I was one of them, to be honest, Mark, right, that, you know, kind of December time or before well, probably yeah. From I'd say probably this time last year, I started kind of looking at things, and we would as a family, we were looking at we were looking at kind of moving to EBs and, you know, kinda solar and heat pumps and, you know, battery storage and all this kind of stuff. Mhmm. And and it's taken a number of conversations like this to to be able to understand and kind of decide what we wanna what we wanna do. You know? And if it wasn't for people like you coming on this, I wouldn't we wouldn't be as far forward as as we have been. And yes yes, of course. I'd say I'm a bit entrepreneurial, whereas I've kind of I mean, you I know we kinda con you contacted me, don't you? And And I've contacted other people and blah blah blah. But, yeah, it's it's it's a bit like walking through tree colon, isn't it? Sometimes. You're a bit like, oh my god.
Marc McLoughlin [00:30:17]:
It is as well. And I think it's important whether it's vehicles or solar or whatever it is. It's important to know when to do things as well. Because, unfortunately, if you are a business that sells solar or you're an EV charging company or you're a vehicle leasing brokerage, guess what they wanna sell you. You know, that's what they want you to have. And I think the feedback I've had from clients is like, look, we are thinking of doing solar. So we've got 5 quarts from different providers. We are thinking of going to EV. So the driver's been looking at Teslas, and we've got a quote from a leasing broker, and and it's he end up like getting into commodity purchasing mode. is in fact what you need is all this stuff to talk to each other and be part of a strategic, whether it's a domestic or a commercial -- Yeah. -- need. You need to string it all together. I mean, I I was with a client last week. And myself and Ben, add a a tour around their factory and and do it. And we weren't in there talking about cars or or anything else. We were in there saying, tell us what your challenges are and Clearly, carbon reduction, ESG, attracting the right talent, you know, securing future contracts through waiting on carbon All this stuff was really prevalent for for this business. But around the site, we were able to spot lots of opportunities to to to do something. That was everything from carbon offsetting to propane tanks, to electric cars, whatever it would be. But on on the roof of the building, you've got a solar array that's fifteen years old that's we don't even know if it's working. You've got electric charge points outside that aren't compatible to take solar energy. You've got so you can see what the if this is the challenge that businesses have got is if you just go and buy stuff, you might buy the wrong stuff, and it's an expensive mistake to to make. And ultimately, I'm not gonna give you what you what you want to do. So and and I love that. I mean, me and my colleagues are all about a solution and a partnership and And I think that's why one of the the, you know, one of the reasons why we wanted to to work with Greenark. Notwithstanding, I think it's also important that you've you've really gotta take a lot of time to understand who you're gonna be working with and the culture of the business. Yeah. Yeah. And we knew a lot of the people and I've never told them this, but I did lots of, you know, investigation around around different people. And I got nothing but, you know, good reports about everybody and It's just so exciting now that I'm a little bit excitable because we're in a small business, it's privately funded. there may be five things that you know that you should be doing that that require some investment, and maybe you can only choose 2 or 3 of them because of the the financial limitations. And now we've we've we've got 6 feet on the accelerators and we've we've got everything going on. We've I bet you've never heard that terminology before. No. No. Me me neither. But, yeah, we've got we've got lots of stuff going on. We've managed to bring some awesome people into the business. We're all working really hard. And I just feel as though we're we're in a space that's so kind of topical. It's such a challenge for companies. And every time we have a conversation about it, I am just more and more reassured that people need our help.
Liz Allan [00:33:27]:
It's good to see a joined up approach, to be honest. You know? And like this like you say, it's it's kind of yours is yours is more handholding, isn't it? I think you have to fly. Hand toe hand hand holding through all of the the areas that people aren't sure about because -- Mhmm. -- because, you know, you if you're if you're a business, you're you're kind of used to what you do as a business, you you buy stuff, you sell stuff, you place a product or a service, but you don't necessarily you know, you know that this this this kind of oh, this whole 20 30, 2050, it's all kind of looming. Mhmm. But you keep looking at your business, don't you? You know? So You do have all these dates list.
Marc McLoughlin [00:34:09]:
Definitely. And these dates seem like they're a long way away, but it will be 2024 before you know it. Oh my god. I know. It's 2 vehicle cycles away from 2030. The government's reaffirmed the position on that with a 0 emission mandate that got announced last couple of weeks. euros for the most part following to sue. I know there's a conversation around what role E fuels or biofuels have to play in that. And maybe they're part of the picture. It's like, we're We're not evangelical about EVs if you part of the pun. We just believe that's the the right route to take, but it's about knowing when to do it, how to do it, who to do it with, And and, you know, there might be such a steps along the way, and it can't you can't just pull the needle out straight away. It starts getting there in a -- Yeah. -- in a gradual way that aligns with the other company objectives that got. And and what mustn't get lost with this as well is is we found that there's lots of well, any leasing company will lease you at Tesla. That's that's not difficult. They will or or or Polestar, whatever it's gonna be. But, actually, working with the company to tell you understand how to do it is quite rare, and we think we're in a unique space doing that. And it's not just for the businesses. It's the drivers as well. Traditionally, a company car scheme might involve your office manager, fleet manager, putting a list of vehicles in front of you that's been provided by a leasing company. Mhmm. Well, that's really helpful if you don't know what off the cars or else charging or is it? It's like Yeah. Exactly. So so I guess what they're gonna do, they're gonna pick a diesel, aren't they? Because that's what they know. And then in the in the in the boardroom, you kinda say, well, that's not what we if we wanna go EV because we got these carbon objectives. So we found that by spending more time with the drivers, who let's be honest, they're probably getting in their first EV. It's the first time they've ever had one. me. Yeah. Spending time with them on what we call driver consultations, which will often take place on Teams calls like this or or or similar. We you've gotta get into the nitty gritty. Now tell me what your have you got any concerns about it? Talk to me about whether or not you can you've got off street parking for charging, Talk to me about your journeys, have you considered Polestar, BYD, or are these different brands that they've never heard of, and and they need to jump on a website with you on a live team's call. Let's look at the cars and the colors and the you know, another thing we use a lot is Zap Map. We Yes. you'll be more than familiar with that. I'm sure we will jump on zap map with our drivers for our clients, and we will have a look at the infrastructure that looks like around where they live, where they work, and their journeys as well. Right. And sometimes, you say to people don't get an e v. Yeah. Or or if there's a business case for it. We might prescribe a plug in hybrid or similar. So it's it's about a balanced approach to all of this stuff and doing doing the right thing at the right time.
Liz Allan [00:36:52]:
No. Absolutely. I was because I was gonna say so I said to you before we start recording, I'm traveling up to Halifax tomorrow and and kind of we we were we've not got the TV just yet, and I was looking at that on that map the kind of charge points that are up that neck of the woods. And I was just thinking, right. Okay. So we still got a petrol at the moment, but there's not there there aren't there isn't very much in infrastructure that I could see -- I think -- -- in the area. -- a great spot, actually, Halifax.
Marc McLoughlin [00:37:21]:
No.
Liz Allan [00:37:22]:
Hey, to tell you, it's got a really trap phone network. Never mind me charging. Yeah. I'm on the phone. I can never he's I might as well use living couple of bit. The intense had a bit of strength. You know what I mean? We're alright. We I mean, you you mentioned Ali, that's a couple times. Oh, oh, kinda HQ's based out of a place called Dean Clough. I know these very well. familiar with it.
Marc McLoughlin [00:37:42]:
Hugex carpet manufacturer, I believe. It's carpet manufacturing. Yeah. Crossleys. Crossly. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. I've I've never heard of it until I went there a few months ago. And it's it's like such an awesome place. It's our kind of flagship site, if you will. And some of the other green art businesses are based there and we get over there like say once or twice a week. But, yeah, it's not brilliant in Halifax. But again, Because we're in the company car market, I've got, you know, we we have a lot of our drivers do have our street parking. And when you actually factor in with the driver that they're doing around fifty miles a day, they're gonna have a car with 250 mile range. they can park at home, and they make one one trip to London every every every 3 months. and they're saving £400 a month on company car tax. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's something The proposition looks a lot more attractive to them. And and the thing is as well with EV is that one of the the kinda narratives that that bugs me is people kinda talk about, you know, I'll I'll do it when I need to. Like, well, I I drive at Tesla. Maybe we got an i Four in the business, couple of Cooper bonds. The the cool as hell. Oh, Cooper Bond. Yeah. Love them. Yeah. Love them. They're such a cool car. But they're all really cool. They're Ace to drive. They're really nippy. They got all the tech in them. I got an upgrade on my Tesla about a week ago, Liz, that gave me parking sensors. I didn't have them before. Is it over the the software update? that introduced the new piece of tech in my car.
Liz Allan [00:39:09]:
So see that? That just excites the hell out of me. I've got to say, Just been I have, you know, that option's amazing.
Marc McLoughlin [00:39:18]:
He's great. And I I love it, Max. I've I've never been a a petrol head, but I'm definitely a battery head if that's the right word. I enjoy the technology a lot more than the mechanics if will. So Yeah. It's reignited in me. Yeah. You're the same. Yeah. It's ignited in me and the team, like a renewed, you know, enthusiasm for the for the cars I I would say. Yeah. because let's be honest. There wasn't apart from some technology in the in the cockpit. There wasn't an awful lot going on in diesel and petrol world. Was there up until Not really.
Liz Allan [00:39:49]:
And I do and I and I do I do like I do like cars. I called myself a petrol head in the last podcast. I was talking to somebody on I wouldn't say I'm I am the same as some blokes who are real, real petrol heads. But actually, I love technology. Absolutely love technology. I love learning about the technology. And, you know and actually, just seeing some of these cars that actually park themselves up, but I was like, what? You are gonna laugh.
Marc McLoughlin [00:40:17]:
It's brilliant. It's brilliant. Well, that that's kinda one of the reasons I went for a Tesla because I felt like, you know, it would have been easy to get one of that Germanic car, you know, BMW Audi Merck, you know, stuff like that. But I wanted to I felt like in in my role, it would helpful for me to get one of the new kids on the block in a different type of thing. I mean, driving a a Tesla in particular is a completely different car experience. You you you sat in the car and you've literally nothing in front of you. It's all on the screen. You know, it's quite unusual to get used to. But once you get used to it, I absolutely love my car. It's brilliant. I know a lot of people do. Yeah. I must admit, like I say,
Liz Allan [00:40:57]:
yeah, it's it's it's not high on my agenda, but I do get I totally get why people like it. You know? I was talking But if you're driven by the EVs, Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I've well, I've driven about kind of 6 or 8. So I've I've narrowed it down. the experience. Oh, god. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yay. They're so nippy. My god. I was just like, I'm quiet and just yeah. The experience is amazing. So I'm I'm really excited about moving moving over to one, but I I would go going back. I I was I was talking to Sam Clark before Christmas and -- Yes. -- and he was He was basically talking about his Tesla, and he'd left his notepad. This wasn't on the recording, by the way, but he'd left his notepad in the car and it the car was doing an update. And and he couldn't get into the car to get his notepad, but it was fine anyway. But you know what I mean? And I was like, what are you Not without its challenges. Not without Yeah. Yeah. But but the fact that I know from, you know, kind of talking to another my interviewees lash from Izoo. He was he was basically talking about you know, he's had a Tesla since something like 2015. and the technology still hasn't caught up in a lot of the OEMs now. So I get it. I do totally totally get it. It's just it's just not on my quite on my radar.
Marc McLoughlin [00:42:18]:
So It will it will listen to the thing eventually, you know, we're you know, bought bought some kind of I know some people believe that hydrogen cars got a part to play. Look at I ain't got a crystal ball, but I doubt it. I think electric cars is kinda where we're at, hydrogen in some kind of commercial transport perhaps and an industrial process. Yeah. I get that. But I think the horse has bolted. I think EVs is where it's at for company vehicles, and and that's what we're helping our our customers get into. But You know, if you were just out in the market looking at the price as a business, you'd probably avoid them. It's only until you understand the com complete picture. that you suddenly realize that this is a a good a good thing for the company. And I think you can't just understate the we were talking earlier that the great Manchester Chamber of Commerce this morning, we we got some events planned with. And we were talking about how, you know, a lot of the the next generation coming out of university, they wanna work for progressive, you know, conscious businesses. Yes. They're the great places to work. They're offering great benefits and a progressive with, you know, things like electric vehicles. So and that's one of the reasons why we're we're so excited about what we're Green Oaks. I think it's an attractive place for people to to work, and we've done a lot of work on introducing some awesome benefits and your EVs through salary sacrifice and health care and all the rest of it. And, yeah, it's just can you tell them a bit excited, Liz? You are excited, love. And, actually, do you know what? I wanna finish off by talking about that event the events that you're talking about. So -- Yeah. -- so you you've got a go electric event in broccoles, haven't you? But you're also talking about said to me before we were recording,
Liz Allan [00:43:59]:
that you've got other events that you're trying to, you know, so the about the benefits of electric vehicles, just give us a bit of a a round up on that one, will you? Well, I think generally the the the idea is that
Marc McLoughlin [00:44:11]:
and I'm sure everyone you've had on on this podcast is in a similar opinion. The opportunity to educate clients and demystify is is great with electric vehicles, you know. It's it's certainly something that's a lot of misinformation around and a lot of misunderstanding around -- Yeah. -- and just a lot of no understanding as well. So Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. We we see that as an opportunity for us to help our clients understand. We see events as an ideal way to do that, but we're not there just plugging our awareness. We are there oh, don't get me wrong. Of course, we've been asked to do some business there, but we're we're there to educate and and position ourselves as experts in this case, and we are partnering with our local DNO, electricity, Northwest to come in a lot. We're gonna be talking about the grid and charging and infrastructure and investment and and maybe what, they have done with their own fleet of vehicles, which we think is very credible. We've got the the chamber of commerce low carbon guys there as well. They're gonna be talking about net 0 and what a resource that the chamber can be to help. companies with this type of thing, either to sign and post them or arrange funding. Our friends at Polestar are are coming along. I think Molly Kelly and Matt Hawkins are gonna be attending from Polestar. They're gonna bring 1 or 2 vehicles with them to have a look around. test drives is a bit challenging when you've got a couple of hours to gonna get everybody together. But certainly, I'm gonna look at the vehicles and booking test drives and demos and tell us a little bit about the brand and some of the vehicles they have got coming around. And that's an interesting piece. A lot a lot of these new manufacturers list they don't have a traditional route to market through a deal and No. I know Polestar, don't they? Yeah. Polestar Don, you know, Genesys. I could name 2 or 3 other ones as well. I mean, Genesys have almost like a regional personal shopper type approach. So I think for us as as -- I like that. Yeah. No. I suppose it seems to work, doesn't it? And I think there's some pressure on dealers in this respect as well. What does the future hold for this franchise network of of independent, you know, dealerships? offering branded cars. So yeah. So but I think it's given our clients an opportunity to see vehicles that aren't as easy easy to access as a traditional local dealer, you know, but your Polestar, for instance, they have the traffic center. They have Solihull. They have Vista. But there's not, you know, there's certainly not as many places with our BMW and Mercedes and things like this. So it's an opportunity for our clients to see cars that have not seen before ask questions when we book demonstrations. I've also got our our colleague, Jeff Wickham, who's an automotive tax specialist. Jeff would be a really good guy for you to get on here, actually. He's a he's a He's recognized one of the leading automotive tax guys in the UK and he's he's he's very knowledgeable in the space of salary sacrifice as well. So if you wanna talk to Jeff about that that particular market, it'd be really, really good. So Jeff's coming to, you know, does do my disservice, but do the numbers. Jeff's coming along to talk about tax and how it all works in particular salary sacrifice. So we think that lineup answers some of the the questions that customers have got. It covers a lot of bases, and this is why we're not just there doing one one or 2 things. So we're calling these our go electric events. The first ones that, like you said, on 20th April, giving ourselves a full 3 weeks to get ready. which is good fun. I think we have around 60 people registered so far. We will have some fallout, but, you know, any anything more than 50 would be absolutely delighted with. And, yeah, that's gonna be our our pilot event. We've had some great success over the years working with chambers. It's been fundamental to what we've done. And as a result of that, we have partnered with or joined, I think, around 6 or 7 chambers of commerce across the UK. And we intend to take the go electric road show on the road. That's what we we are trying to do. So that's gonna take up a lot of my time, and I expect that we will have events this year or certainly next 12 months in Oxford, Newcastle, Sheffield, Manchester, Birmingham, Not him in a a few other places as well. So that's gonna be really good fun. But this is a good thing. Like, the the journey that we're going on at GreenOak is a bit like our customers, we've never none of us have done this before. So we're building this business and putting it all together, and that's one of the things that really excites me about is is the opportunities we've got. Nice. Good. And so just fin finishing off, so I'm just looking. So your website is is greenarkvehicles.co.uk,
Liz Allan [00:48:36]:
isn't it? greenarkvehicles.co.uk
Marc McLoughlin [00:48:39]:
for the vehicle division. greenarkenergy.co.uk, which should tell you a little bit more about what the group does. and how we're helping clients more holistically, how above just vehicles. But, yes, those are our 2 websites.
Liz Allan [00:48:51]:
And and how do people get hold of you per then. Is there do you would you prefer them to go through the website, through the contact pages, or can they contact you direct if they're interested in talking to you? absolutely contact me directly. I I I live within LinkedIn.
Marc McLoughlin [00:49:06]:
Yes. You do. Oh. I've seen you a lot. Can you reach out to me on there? There's a good chance I'm listing. I'm there. So, yeah, we'd love to hear from you from there. The event itself is on LinkedIn as well under my profile. So if people wanted to come along to brockles or even just get in touch with me to go on a list for when the events come into their area -- Yes. -- we'd certainly love to hear from them. That's brilliant. That's brilliant.
Liz Allan [00:49:29]:
It's been really interesting talking to you, Mark. We've finally managed it. I've finally managed it. So Somebody can feel bad. What are you doing it? Come on. But listen, thank you ever so much for your time. I really, really appreciate it. And I hope I hope to kind of I might even have a bit of a nose down at Dean Club while I'm up in Halifax. Yeah. Come and see us. That'd be nice. Will do. Might get you a spot of lunch. Hey. You're on.
Marc McLoughlin [00:49:56]:
Listen, thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.
Liz Allan [00:49:59]:
Oh, much appreciated to you as well. So listen. Thank you very much. And for everybody else, I'm gonna say see you next time. Bye bye.
Marc McLoughlin [00:50:07]:
Bye bye