Martin Bell

Was approached by Heineken to run a pub called the Middle Bell in a high class area as the pub had issues which we had dealt with in a nightclub we owned in Walsall. The brewery was due to spend £350,000 on a full refurbishment program but due to current trends with drinking habits and the economy have now pushed it back a few years. This has meant the pub has become unviable as a business for us both to run and pull an income out of. We left the business in February 2024

This is a business I set up in April 2011, dealing with claims and liability for the Utility Industry, such customers I worked for included Severn Trent Water, United Utilities, Amey Utilities and Network Plus. Basically this was dealing with flood claims caused by water meters leaking, general incompetence by operatives which caused damage to people homes, our job was to go into the property and assess the damage, potentially install drying equipment to dry out the property, and then work with the homeowner to either repair all the damaged caused or agree a settlement figure. We would have to produce reports on all incidents and recommendation. We also got recommended by the Fire Service to help people and businesses who had a flood and sometimes work with them and insurers to mitigate the loss

I bought a 50% share in this business purely by luck as I thankfully bought the share 10 days before all the floods hit the UK. Where we was averaging 15 to 20 claims a week we were getting around 250 - 300 claims a week dealing with flooded properties in Tewkesbury, Gloucester, Sheffield and Doncaster plus areas of Nottingham flooded which was on our doorstop, we had to go into the properties remove all contaminated furniture, list it and value it then deal with all the contamination in the properties and dry them out, I basically ran the Tewkesbury and surrounding areas and lived down there for approx 4 months with a team of guys that worked for me, very challenging and heartbreaking seeing people’s homes destroyed by polluted water, the worst cases were the elderly who basically lost furniture and possessions which they had owns for years, job was also very rewarding when getting people back in there homes.

Was approached through an agency to go and work at Calor Gas as a driver covering Nottingham, Leicester, Newark and Burton upon Trent depot as a driver on there bottled gas department but also act as a holiday relief for there different transport managers at different depots as I have a CPC in transport management. I was then approached by Calor to go self employed but to set up where other drivers worked for me as I had a lot of fireman friends who got there HGV who could cover when they are not working which Calor wanted as they saw them as more responsible drivers, Calor paid to put these fireman through there ADR but they worked through me, I acted as a driver but also as a loader so that when the fireman came off shift at 9am they could come straight into the yard and go straight of as the lorry was already loaded and dieseled up ready to go, vehicles would then be potentially unloaded and reloaded at night to save valuable time definitely in the winter when demand is high for heating gas

I started at Murphy & Son in July on a temporary contract painting, they had just built a new chemical plant and was upgrading the rest of the factory which needed painting throughout, Murphy & Sons Limited are the Uk largest producers of chemicals to the Brewing and drinks industry, making chemicals that are tailored to each particular brewery and also water source so that beers and lagers can be contract brewed anywhere in the uk without the flavour tasting different. I was sometimes asked to help out loading vehicles and then was asked to help out on production. At the age of 19 I became permanent and was taught all the different sections of the business from transport which they paid for me to go through a CPC, then learnt about warehousing, then put through my ADR as a lot of the chemicals we work with are hazardous for transport. I was put through my HGV licence and acted as backup and relief driver, also covering for holidays and emergencies where brewery had forgot to order and needed a delivery there within hours otherwise the brewery would stop production, ie the likes of Coors/Bass, Scottish & Newcastle, I was put through my forklift licence as sometimes it was curtainsider work which had pallets on as well as 1000ltr IBC’s and 4100 demountable tanks which held 25 barrel units which equates to a barrel unit being 36 gallon in the brewing industry. So I learnt to shunt the road tankers around the yard, some of them were single pot 25000 litre tanks and some tankers were 4 compartment tanks which could have a different chemical in each pot, which meant the tanks had to be cleaned precisely and checked in the laboratory for Ph levels, also all the chemicals were classed as food grade so cleanliness of tanks was paramount. I acted as relief transport manager when the main manager was off, I did also do transport planning as well, working out the loads, routes and the weight of the loads to make sure they are not overloaded. Between 1999 and 2002 the company bought up a lot of there competitors and I was tasked along with some engineers to basically shut down the operations of the companies they had bought and move all the plant and equipment back to the Nottingham site and recommission it there, we also shut down the other factory and got it ready to hand it back to the landlord. I never officially had a job title at Murphy & Sons even though I was paid a premium rate as I could work in any part of the business, although sometimes was referred to as the Floater which probably isn’t the job title you aspire to but to be fair it didn’t bother me at all.