Leasing companies love a forecast: few can resist predicting the size of their risk fleets over a three-to-five-year timescale. Fewer still actually hit their stated targets.

That’s not an accusation that can be levelled at Alphabet. Quite the reverse: its predictions have tended to be considerably under-estimated.

In 2011, chief executive Richard Schooling outlined to Fleet News his plans for a risk fleet of 60,000 by 2015. A month later, the company acquired ING and accelerated to 95,000.

In 2012, Schooling laid out his strategy to hit 130,000 vehicles by 2017 (part of a plan to become the UK’s second largest leasing company); that figure was surpassed in the 2014 FN50, although Alphabet remains third, behind Lex Autolease and LeasePlan.

So, what’s his next milestone for the business? Schooling refers to recent interviews in Fleet News which suggest 150,000-160,000 is the threshold target for many of the big five leasing providers (excluding Lex Autolease, of course) and says his intention remains to get to number 2.

“We are not there yet but we will be,” he says. “We are on plan this year to grow again by another few thousand . It isn’t about being bigger than anyone else; it’s about consistent growth.”

Fleet News: A growing number of large leasing companies are looking for growth – the new benchmark seems to be 150,000/160,000, not 100,000. Not everyone can succeed: how do you ensure Alphabet does?

RS: It is easier to sell on price than anything else but it is not sustainable. If you secure on price, unless you are the cheapest next time around you will lose them. So we have to give them another reason to do business with us, which is about service and value.

You have to keep your existing business by building a service and high quality relationship and then add to it. Alphabet Partner is purely incremental growth and LCVs are also incremental. We have a lot of customers that we just do cars with because we have, to a degree, looked at LCVs and cars separately. Now we are looking at customers that run both.

We also cover the whole market, from sole traders to corporate companies. We offer a breadth of services, from contract hire to personal schemes. Being a regulated company helps: we apply the FCA principles to the whole business.

FN: Any other growth opportunities?

RS: Over the next couple of years, broker activity will be our big growth area. We have a good mix of business: corporate/large corporate, public sector, partner and dealer. Penetration of our services continues to be an aspiration, such as rental, but also more obscure services.

We have an opportunity with Just Park for a preferential offer to customers’ employees. We also have an opportunity for customers to monetise their own parking, for example at weekends, to generate money.

We launched this last year and it is another example of the sharing mentality. The future is bite-size utilisation of aspects of mobility, for example, using the asset as an asset – someone using your car while you are on holiday to save the cost of parking. It requires a change of mind-set – people still view their company car as a personal asset – but if it comes back valeted, why not?

FN: Mobility has become something of a buzzword in fleet. What does it mean to Alphabet and to fleets?

RS: Mobility is looking at the car as a tool and asking what is the company trying to achieve and its holistic needs and then building in the employees’ needs. It’s about car provision but not necessarily being wedded to it. We have been positioned around mobility since 2011/2012. Then it was more futuristic and, in part, it still is. But there is a sign that there is something happening and if you are going to be relevant later, you have to be aware of the impact and how you will be part of it.

FN: How does Alphabet see its role in the provision of mobility services?

RS: We are looking at it locally and centrally through Alphabet International. We look at the future trends and how they impact us, for example the connected car and telematics. It’s becoming more intelligent, for example, proactive servicing to prevent failure on the car.

In Europe, mobility managers are coming to the fore, rather than having a fleet manager looking at cars, a travel manager doing trains and someone on reception doing taxis and rental – that’s not joined up. Mobility managers bridge the gap between HR and finance and the fleet manager is ideally poised to move into that role and act as the linchpin. But you have to give the right person at corporate level the right tools to manage it.

We are having those conversations in the UK today but it will be two-to-four years before it makes a huge impact.

FN: Alphabet has been branching out into car clubs and electric vehicles. Are fleets ready for these services?

RS: Our target for AlphaElectric last year was 500 cars; we did 700. We have already taken 700 orders this year so we are seeing incredible growth. The people who thought that EVs were cool are gone; now it’s about them being viable to organisations.

We are also seeing more interest in AlphaCity – the car share mentality is being tested. We currently have 16 corporate customers and more than 1,300 users but it’s picking up and we have a lot in the pipeline.

It is difficult for people to open their minds to new solutions. The early adopters have a very specific problem that they need a solution for – for example, they are running pool cars. AlphaCity removes the problem and is an efficient allocation of cost – a clear benefit. We see it as being more of an advantage for organisations that have people moving between locations or have a high use of taxis – i.e. where there is occasional use of cars.

We have set up a demonstration programme for AlphaCity enabling companies to trial before making a commitment and we now do the same for AlphaElectric.

In partnership with EDF, we offer a temporary charging solution, so a company does not have to invest in an infrastructure just to trial electric vehicles.

A mobility card is also a potential launch as a payment mechanism to use for a variety of transport needs, consolidating the invoicing.

FN: Do you see the contract hire and leasing sector continuing to consolidate?

RS: There are still plenty of opportunities if you look at the portfolios of the top 20, but we have no plans to acquire, only to grow organically. It is more difficult when you get to the size of doing a few thousand vehicles per month (like the top three) to look at a company with a few thousand vehicles . It’s not worth it, and there is a risk of not retaining the customers, especially when many of them chose to go for a small company.

Schooling believes that a likely downturn in residual values could shake out some of the less desirable deals, forcing the industry onto a more level playing field.

“We see the used market tapering off this year and that will have an impact on the industry, for example, companies that are reinvesting their windfall profits into customer acquisition,” he says. “If that stops them, hopefully we will get back to a more level playing field.

“We have walked away from deals in the past. At the end of the day, a contract has to have value for the customer and profit for the supplier. If you have companies manipulating that because of windfalls, it’s not healthy. If you win a customer on price, you will lose them on price.”