A FAMILY-RUN vehicle leasing firm has significantly increased its market share despite demand nationally halving during the economic downturn.

Advanced Vehicle Leasing (AVL), based in Urlay Nook, near Stockton, supplies contract hire, lease cars and light commercial vehicles to businesses and individuals across the UK.

Despite the vehicle leasing market being an estimated 50 per cent smaller since the start of the recession, the firm has increased its market share by about ten per cent in the first quarter of this year.

The company, which expanded when it moved to Urlay Nook from Preston Farm, Stockton, in April last year, is providing upwards of 50 vehicles a month and has just signed a contract to supply a North-East firm with cars.

The company made profits of £54,360 last year.

Company founder and managing director Stuart Beagrie said he believed the worst of the downturn for the company was over and he was confident of growth in the region of 50 per cent in the next 24 months.

The brightening outlook has even allowed the company to push ahead with its annual overseas golf trip for major suppliers and customers, which was cancelled last year in the face of the deepening recession.

Mr Beagrie said: “The effects of the recession were quite scary for a time, although it would appear, thankfully, brief, but it is at times like that when you discover just how much grip your business has on the road.

“The market has shifted significantly over the past 18 months. Traditionally, our trade was pretty much split 50-50 between commercial vehicles and cars, the latter now accounts for nearly 70 per cent of our business.”

Mr Beagrie believed one of the company’s strengths was the fact it was a family business.

The company has 11 staff, three directly employed and the others self-employed agents, who have represented the company for between five and nine years.

His sister, Liz, is the firm’s agent for Humberside and Lincoln, and his 19-year-old son, Clarke, works alongside him in Urlay Nook. Mr Beagrie hopes he will eventually take over the business.

He said: “Clarke works hard with a smile on his face – just as it should be.

“Customers like consistency because it is an indicator of reliability. Come back here in three years and you will find me, my son and most, if not all, of my sales team. That’s the type of company we are.

“My mum and dad were old fashioned shopkeepers in Redcar, proudly serving their customers for nearly 30 years.

Their hard working customerfocused philosophy has rubbed off on me.”

The firm’s single-biggest contract, which has been in place for more than seven years, was the supply of 700 commercial vehicles for mail order company Premier Direct – a deal worth more than £750,000.