Reaching their 10 Year Anniversary is a significant achievement for the team at Herd, a decade of rapid growth, which has been exciting, challenging and rewarding for everyone involved.
In 2014, Nigel Schroder, Founder and Group CEO of the Herd Group, saw an opportunity, a huge space in the vehicle rental sector that was crying out to be filled. Herd has grown from a small daily rental company, with just over 100 vans on fleet, based on a single site in Epsom Surrey, to being one of the most diverse and recognised brands in the hire and fleet management space today.
Schroder explains, “It all started with our Vanimals, the wraps we add to our B2C fleet, with each Vanimal denoting the size of the van. They started to grow and multiply until eventually we had a whole Herd of Vanimals and hence the Herd Group was formed.”
Herd has seen a decade of rapid growth. Building from their B2C foundations, Herd swiftly created a B2B offering, supplying commercial vehicles into local and national business across a whole range of business sectors.
The brand exploded when its successful franchise offering spread throughout the country, Vanimals sprung up everywhere! Recently refreshed and launched to the market, Herd anticipates a wave of new franchises to be added to the current network over the next 24 months.
The roll out of Herd Connect followed, providing extensive and integrated fleet management solutions across a range of fleets allowing Herd to provide a true one-stop-shop in the mobility support sector.
Schroder puts the success of the business down to three key cornerstones.
1. Herd intensity – “we simply do not stand still, in order to be the best, we have to keep pushing, developing, and growing. Herd Intensity ensures we hit our goals and grab every opportunity”
2. An Entrepreneurial attitude throughout the business – “it’s the ‘E’ of CARE, all of our team think about what they do, how it impacts our customers and how we can do things better, a real entrepreneurial approach that makes a huge difference”
3. An absolute passion for Customer CARE – “from top to bottom we genuinely have a passion for Customer CARE. It’s not just a department, it’s every single person in our team, it’s part of our DNA. Without our customers we do not have a business”
Looking to the future, Herd is extremely well placed to build on its success of the last 10 years. Launched in 2024, Herd Synergy, combines all of the Herd Group’s portfolio of fleet solutions including fleet management, vehicle rental and remarketing under one banner and is building on the one-stop-shop solution provider, unique to the automotive sector.
Schroder summed it all up “we’ve got some great partners, absolutely fantastic customers, and a brilliant, brilliant team. They all make up the Herd Family and without any of these our
business wouldn’t be where it is today. Thank you to everyone who has been on this journey with us, I simply can’t wait to see what the next 10 years holds!”
