‘Our people are our greatest asset’, says WCF Chandlers after winning Grantham Journal's Employer of the Year award

A heating oil supplier has won an award for how it treats its employees.

WCF Chandlers won Employer of the Year at the Grantham Journal Business Awards in November.

Funding Round sponsored this category and deemed that the business was “a good company to work for” and it delivers “commercial results”.

With this taken into account, it acts as an “inspiration to other businesses”.

WCF Chandlers is based on Alma Park Road in Grantham, and has other sites in Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, North Yorkshire and Norfolk.

Danielle Casbon, people and culture partner, discussed some of the recent employee initiatives that had been brought in at WCF Chandlers that earned them the award.

How did it feel to win the award?

We are incredibly proud to have won this year’s Employer of the Year Award.

What do you think made you stand out as an employer?

One of the great things about WCF Chandlers is that all of our employees are employee owners, and we really think this plays a huge part in our culture as a business and why we were lucky enough to win Employer of the Year.

Our people are our greatest asset and we really do value and listen to their employee voice, they even help shape our strategic plans. We want to invest in our people and have a robust personal development scheme in place.

Tell us a bit about what the business does?

WCF Chandlers is a local independent company that has understood the value of its customers for over 80 years. Starting as a company that sold ‘everything from a tin tack to a combine harvester’, from the days of chicken sheds and the vast hardware store in Grantham, we have moved on to supply a great many domestic, farming, and commercial customers with their fuel requirements.

Many across the region will remember the ‘Chandlers Oil and Gas’ jingle frequently played on local radio station Lincs FM.

WCF Ltd acquired Chandlers Oil and Gas in 2012, and it was rebranded as WCF Chandlers.

WCF Chandlers today is a fuel distributor providing domestic heating oil, commercial business fuels and various additives and lubricants for over 80 years, covering Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, North Yorkshire and Norfolk.

What challenges has the company faced over the last year?

Within the last year we have introduced a driver training academy, which gives non-HGV drivers the opportunity to earn the required qualifications for a career within the tanker driving industry.

The Driver Training Academy was a project we’ve been considering for some time as a means of bringing in new talent to our business to support our growth ambitions. The idea really came to fruition as we identified a shortage of drivers within the industry.

We soon realised this wasn’t isolated to either our industry or locality, but a nationwide shortage of trained and dedicated drivers. We are really pleased to say our first cohort are all out on the road and will be completing their training within the next few weeks.

As a result of the success of our first Driver Academy, we have recently commenced our second cohort based at our North Killingholme depot.

How have you adapted/grown as an employer over the last year or two?

Within the last year, we have introduced a people and culture partner to the team, which is our first dedicated HR support at WCF Chandlers.

Our team are our biggest strength and we felt that we needed to further support our team by having someone on site who can champion our people, focus on their engagement and to develop, coach and mentor our teams.

We have recently introduced an employee app which allows us to celebrate both individual and business wide successes and share important business updates with all employees at WCF Chandlers in real time. 98 per cent of our employee owners at WCF Chandlers are engaged with the app where we are able to collaborate, celebrate and welcome new employees.

We provided phones for those who did not have their own to ensure that everyone has the tools they need to participate and be part of the community. The app also allows our teams to use their employee voice and share their ideas and provide honest feedback.

What is the plan for WCF Chandlers over the coming year?

Over the next year or so we would like to continue to build upon the foundations we have now laid with regards to staff development, investment in our local depots and future fuels. Our office team now have personal development plans in place so we aim to continue to build upon these, with some our team members participating in growth mindset projects and project management training. We are investing in our depots to ensure that they are efficient and fit for purpose and we have an updated fleet of vehicles starting to come into the business.

WCF Chandlers wish to continue to be at the forefront of future fuels so will be continuing to grow our customer base around HVO (synthetic white diesel [hydrotreated vegetable oil]) and Ultra 35 (synthetic gas oil).