From street hustler to market leader

Jucy co-founder and CEO, Tim Alpe, was recently named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Shay Wright has the growth story behind the company and Alpe’s advice for budding entrepreneurs.
Tim Alpe says tourism has always been in his blood. Growing up he watched his father, Chris Alpe, become a pioneer of New Zealand’s motor home industry after starting Maui campervans in the early 80s. Tim cleaned campervans in his school holidays and says it was inevitable that he would end up in the industry.
After leaving Canterbury University, Tim worked for Tourism Holdings Ltd in Los Angeles, Auckland and Melbourne. When he was 27, Tim and his brother Dan wanted to do something “a little bit different”. So in 2002 they started a little backpacker car business in Parnell.
They quickly found themselves in a growing niche market, adding luxury full size sedans, people movers, and recently, campervans, to their fleet. In just eight years Jucy’s fleet has grown from 35 Daewoo cars to more than 2300 vehicles.
In the early days, Tim and Dan were doing everything you do in a start-up business, from cleaning and dispatching the cars to vehicle changeovers. The business was growing, but had “a street hustler mentality”. So Tim sought guidance around business structure and decided that The ICEHOUSE Owner Manager Program (OMP) could be really beneficial to Jucy’s development. Over the next two years, both Tim and Dan participated in the programme in order to pursue their Jucy goal of having a smooth running, funky front end, and a structured back end.
The ICEHOUSE gave them much needed discipline and taught them to step outside the business and take a helicopter view. “It made us write a business plan, sit back and reassess,” says Tim. Now he determines exactly what plan of attack is required for a business opportunity, rather than approaching it solely on gut feeling.
Growing the Jucy fruit
There are two key aspects to Jucy’s success; their brand and their staff. Tim’s approach is also crucial to Jucy’s success. His street fighter mentality to getting business means he doesn’t lose touch with the people ringing the phones. Tim’s approach doesn’t stop on weekends either, and he says he is lucky to have a supportive wife who “understands that I cannot lie in bed with my iPad to see how much business we have done.”
Although Jucy is in a very competitive saturated market, their approach and innovative nature means they continue to grow, with good cashflows, and a turnover of more than $30 million.
While Jucy already has rental cars, campervans, a hotel, and a cruise business, there is still a world of possibilities for growth, believes Tim. In looking toward the future, he says Jucy has so much more to do. “We have got into really key areas; we’ve got a really good model, and there are plenty of opportunities.”
Tim’s aim is to “create a recognisable world class tourism brand, not just in New Zealand but offshore as well.” A recent growth strategy has seen expansion into the Australian market. In 2007 Jucy put its first campers on Aussie roads, a move which Tim says has been really positive for the company. “Australia’s probably growing even faster than New Zealand. We have gone from one vehicle in 2007 to just under 500 campervans in 2010.”
Entrepreneur of the Year
Tim says that while “we are not so quick to celebrate commercial success”, the 2010 Ernst & Young Awards acknowledged that “we have some really smart people who can add a lot of value and employ a lot of people.” Tim was initially indecisive about the opportunity, but after winning the Services category, and then the Entrepreneur of the Year Award, he admits that they definitely get “more and more people knowing the Jucy way of life.” 
Tim’s staff got right in behind the Award process. He says although the award might have his name on the title, it’s definitely a team effort. “And that’s really cool.”
As the business has grown, Tim has found it more challenging to stay close to the coal face and keep up the personal relationships with staff. “It is difficult, but I don’t think it is impossible.”
Although his role is now a lot broader, he is committed to remaining at the heart of the business. “Our team is the key to our business. We love the fact that we have people here who are as passionate about it as we are. It’s a really young team, it’s a funky environment. We could never do the ‘undercover boss’ thing because everyone knows who we are.”
Jucy offers staff flexible opportunities to grow within the company. “We have people who started off driving our shuttle vans and are now sales managers.”