{"id":33488,"date":"2026-09-09T01:26:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T00:26:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/?p=33488"},"modified":"2026-09-04T01:27:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T00:27:12","slug":"meet-lee-statham-driver-hire-crewe-congleton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/meet-lee-statham-driver-hire-crewe-congleton\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Lee Statham, Driver Hire, Crewe & Congleton"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

Lee Statham had worked in the recruitment sector for five years (for a competitor) before joining the Driver Hire Crewe team in 2018. He admits that he moved to Driver Hire with a view to ultimately owning his own franchise business.<\/h3>\n

Lee quickly fitted in and impressed. Shortly after joining, he was asked to manage the Crewe office, and with the help of his team, the business delivered its best annual performance for 11 years. Impressed by Lee\u2019s business acumen and ambition, Driver Hire\u2019s senior management team offered him the opportunity to become the joint owner (49% shareholder).<\/p>\n

Becoming a business owner<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\u201cWhen Driver Hire approached me in 2019, they offered me a very fair deal, financial support, and, of course, the ongoing business back-up all its franchisees receive,\u201d says Lee.<\/p>\n

Perhaps his takeover timing could have been better. Within a year, Covid hit. Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, two years of outstanding trading and profits put him in a position to become the outright owner of the franchise. He completed his purchase of the Driver Hire Crewe business in 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cOwning the business outright was a fantastic feeling and something that spurred to me on to even greater success,\u201d he continues.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s exactly what Lee and his three-person team have done. Driver Hire Crewe regularly finds work for 120 drivers and, weekly, meets the needs of 20 \u2013 30 clients. \u201cYear to date we\u2019re 41% up on last year,\u201d says Lee. \u201cWe\u2019re in the top ten of Driver Hire\u2019s fastest growing offices, turnover is in excess of \u00a31m, and we\u2019re having a best ever year for new client acquisition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Innovation and expansion<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Crewe\u2019s ongoing strong performance has been helped by Driver Hire\u2019s new digital tools, which have allowed Lee to expand his operations in the Congleton part of his franchise area, as a virtual territory. He also has a team that includes a superstar in his own right \u2013 Brad Kerin. Brad was Driver Hire\u2019s 2024 \u2018Recruitment Consultant of the Year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith a Driver Hire franchise, you\u2019re buying into a recipe for success,\u201d Lee continues. \u201cIf you stick to it and follow the fundamentals of the recruitment process, you\u2019ve every chance of being a successful franchisee. Of course, there\u2019s still plenty to learn about running your own business. When you\u2019re an employee you\u2019re not aware of all the background stuff that\u2019s going on \u2013 for example: employment law, tax, HR, back office and much more.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Lee wouldn\u2019t have it any other way. \u201cIt\u2019s fair to say that being a Driver Hire franchisee has exceeded all my expectations. I love the flexibility of being my own boss and, of course, the financial rewards.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you want to create your own success story with Driver Hire, just click\u00a0the button below, to get in touch for an initial chat.<\/strong><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lee Statham had worked in the recruitment sector for five years (for a competitor) before joining the Driver Hire Crewe team in 2018. He admits that he moved to Driver Hire with a view to ultimately owning his own franchise business. Lee quickly fitted in and impressed. Shortly after joining, he was asked to manage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":33489,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[86,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-driver-hire","category-recruitment-franchises"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/DH-PR-Image-SEP26.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33488"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33490,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33488\/revisions\/33490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}