What makes one of the most successful firms in Wales tick? NIGEL JARRETT headed north - the north of Gwent, that is - to find out

IT might be said, with a certain amount of common sense, that a commercial business is something that should always be - well, busy.

This is the immediate impression given by road haulage firm Monex, just named as the fastest-growing company in the Principality.

No visitor to its elevated position on the Crown Business Park at Tredegar could be in any doubt that the company is literally on the move, inside and outside the office.

Growth at Monex currently knows no bounds. Between 1997 and 2000 its annual growth rate was 92.8%, with sales soaring from £620,000 four years ago to £4.4 million last year. Confidence among senior managers is such that the upward spiral is likely to continue, leaving other haulage firms behind.

Monex was placed first of Welsh companies in the Sunday Times/ Virgin Atlantic Fast Track 100 and 50th in the overall UK list. The only other Welsh firm in the top 100 was a mobile-phone supplier from Rhyl.

The fact that only two Welsh firms figure in the list is enough to justify some celebratory crowing at Tred-egar. And gasps of incredulity.

"I was fairly surprised really," said director Nick Holmes. "You would have expected all the IT and 'dot com' firms to be in there. But they have disappeared and I think they have lost their way.

"I think the IT industry has been over-hyped. I haven't seen a service yet that, as a consumer, I couldn't get done somewhere else"

Monex is involved in a specialised sector of the haulage business, transporting things like brakes and exhausts to car manufacturers, collecting and delivering goods across the UK and Europe. It also offers warehousing and inv-entory control.

It is a niche market in which the company, started by 27-year-old James Howells, pictured, in 1995, is keen to expand. He has every confidence of further growth, saying, "This financial year, which finishes in March, we would expect to get sales of £7.5 million and the forecast for 2003 is £10 million," said Mr Holmes.

James' father Rhys founded a company which was later sold to the multinational transport firm Christian Salvesen.

His advice and support is much-valued by Monex but it is James Howells who heads the drive into Europe and beyond. He knows that success means meeting tough customer demand.

"The market is growing with the customers we've got and their suppliers because they all have this need to get parts to automotive manufacturers on time," he said. "We tend to be involved now with the whole process - with the suppliers and with purchasing in factories. We get very close to our customers.

"We get goods from all over Europe. We are instructed to collect them, we bring them back to our two warehouses here in the UK and - we also have a collection hub in Holland - distribute throughout South Wales to our customers. This is directly to manufacturers - Ford, Vauxhall, Volkswagen.

"It's all hyper-critical It is very expensive for manufacturers to stop the car lines. "We are good at the job because we have the right equipment and the experience of the people working here. Our vehicles are the best quality you can buy and they are also satellite-tracked.

"All the major European languages are spoken in the office.

The company operates from three bases in the UK - Tredegar, Merthyr and Birmingham - as well as the Dutch centre at Breda. However, there seem to be no geographical limits. Two offices have been opened in Cape Town and Johannesburg and eastern Europe is beckoning.

Mr Holmes said: "We have a family member in South Africa but, apart from that, the motor industry is being dragged there by government grant aid towards manufacturing. "A major customer has an interest in a big foundry in Croatia, and we are looking to invest in a Croatian operation to run all the distribution from there across Europe.

The foundry is there, the start date has been a little delayed but we are at the stage where prototypes are being manufactured. This is well within our resources. You get to the stage where you feel you could do with more but we are lucky in that we have a significant amount of experience here."

Mr Howells said the company's aim was to maintain its level of service first. Growth was a by-product of that as opposed to growth overtaking it.

"We are available 24 hours a day," he said. "As needs change, things might happen during the night at a production line somewhere in Germany, say, so we have to get a van or plane organised and make sure goods get where they need to be."

The company's current record of flight-hauled goods is an astonishing four planes in the air at one time.

Mr Holmes said: "We are looking at quite a lot of diversification, but particularly in niche markets, either within the UK or the rest of Europe, which will help us balance our flow of traffic," said Mr Holmes.

"We are not thinking of general haulage.

"You cannot look at just Wales. Here we are curtailed by a river below us and a sea further down, but we have an operation in Birmingham that has 360 degrees to go through. "

In other words, don't fence yourself in - it's a motto that's working for this company.