22 Top 50


Americas and Asia offsetting profits in Europe. As a result it became vulnerable to a takeover bid and


whenUPSput inanoffer, theonly argumentwasover the termsof thedeal.Eventually,apriceof9.5eurosper share was agreed. The deal, which values TNT at about 5bn euros, is


expected to be completed in the third quarter. UPS reckons it will take four years and cost one billion euros to merge its operations with TNT Express. However, it expects to find annual savings of 400 to 550m euros by the end of the fourth year of integration. For UPS in the UK, of course, it’s the Olympics that


is the big focus of attention as it is the official logistics partner. Alan Williams, director of London 2012 sponsorship


and operations at UPS, says: “Testing our entire operational procedure has involved tweaks here and there. For example at the basketball test eventwe had to unload a wooden floor froma curtainsider, but it rained andwe couldn’t risk getting the floorwetbecause it could warp, so we were stuck for hours. So we have been stepping up ourweather proofing plans.” There have been plenty of other challenges. Since


Williams andhis teamtookontheproject theyhavebeen faced with ash clouds grounding flights for weeks, and cities in the grips of riots.Williams says it was a case of “known unknowns and unknown unknowns.” FedEx has also been on the expansion trail. It has


agreed terms to take over Tatex, the French express transport operator. Tatex has a national network which includes a central hub near Paris as well as 35 stations


FrankAppel Profits are rising at DHL Supply Chain but Deutsche Post must also counter decline in the traditional lettersmarket.


including six regional hubs. It carries more than 19 million parcels each year, representing an annual turnover of about 150million euros. Earlier this year, FedEx also agreed to buy Polish


courier company Opek. This gives it access to a nationwide domestic groundnetworkwith anestimated 70 million dollars in annual revenue and 12.5 million shipments annually. Stobart seems to have been growing in all directions.


Not content with becoming the star of a TV series, it has been working on expansion plans for itsWidnes site. It has just received approval to develop 1.5m sq ft of warehousing at the site, which is part of the 3MGmulti- modal gateway freight park scheme. ItalsoboughtGazeley’s275,534sqftSolarwarehouseat


Magna Park near Lutterworth, and agreed a deal with Muse Developments to take occupation of the 67,689 sq ft Pinnacle building at Eurocentral.


It has been


expanding its rail operations and launched a rail service for Tesco from Daventry to the Wentloog terminal in SouthWales to serve theMagor distribution centre. And then there are the airports. Stobart owns


Southend Airport, and has set out a bold expansion plan for the operation. It is also keen to expand Carlisle Airport. For Norbert Dentressangle the past year has been


devoted to digestingTDGwhich it took over at the end of March 2011. last year it reported a 17 per cent rise in operating profit and is focused on a strategy of growth. It has set its sights on becoming a significant player in


the international forwarding market to complement its strengths in European logistics and transport.


market update Independent strategies


The past year has seen some significant developments among the major independent players. In August, Bibby Distribution took over Atchison Topeka,which provides logistics services for the food manufacturing industry. Atchison Topeka has a turnover of some £26m and 150,000 sq ft of warehousing split betweenWorcester and Droitwich. It offers a range of warehousing, palletised transport and bulk road tanker services. Culina,which has built a strong


position in the temperature controlledmarket, is now strengthening is position in ambient with the takeover of the logistics business of Cert Octavian. Themove is significant in the


context of developments in the retail grocerymarket,where retailers are increasingly looking to upgrade the frequency of deliveries through their ambient networks froma three day (ormore) cycle to the kind of next day operation used for chilled. There is an obvious


opportunity for an organisation with those chilled logistics skills to develop its business in the ambient arena. And, in fact, inMarch Culina launched a next day ambient service for Tesco. Culina and Cert


Octavian have previously developed links through shared facilities at Dudley and Rotherham. These operations now become fully part of Culina’s network and are joined by Cert Octavian warehouses at Hoddesdon, Lutterworth and Middleton. In September Culina chief


Thomas van Mourik brought in industry veteran Glyn Davies as a non-exec director. Davies set up Russell Davies in 1974 building it into a £100mbusiness before selling it to Securicor, which then went on to become part of DHL. After that he co-founded Hanbury Davies, which grew tomore than £50min sales, before selling that to Wincanton in 2008. In the fashion sector, inMay the


Elite Group,which was established in 1991 focusing on logistics for the fashion industry, rebranded itself as Torque.The company has sites in London, Leeds, and Bradford providing over onemillion square feet of warehousing. Services include garment hanging, steaming, bagging and repairs.


Other expansionminded players


include Advanced Supply Chain which opened a 200,000 sq ft operations centre at Birstall in Leeds.The customs bonded site was originally intended to provide overspill storage for existing customers, but increased demand has created a need for the site to fulfil an operations centre role. And inMarch it opened a warehouse in Corby taking its operational space to over 1million sq ft. Essex-based Canute has just


opened a 105,000 sq ft warehouse at Great Blakenham near Ipswich to support port-centric activities at Felixstowe, taking its UK network to 12 sites following the addition of the Coventry and Warrington depots. 2011 also saw the revitalisation of


the Tibbett name.Tibbett Logistics was launched in Romania by Keswick Enterprises, the holding company set up by former Tibbett & Britten chief John Harvey.


JohnHarvey Revitalising theTibbett name with expanding businesses in Romania.


Harvey said: “I amdelighted that


we have finally been able to bring Tibbett Logistics and Tibbett Retail Services fully into the Keswick group of companies.Our innovative and dynamic young Romanian teamare drawing on Keswick’s global experience in the logistics sector. I amconfident that together we will accelerate development and continue to build the business – which has already sustained continuous growth since 2005.” And towards, the end of last year


Keswick joined forces with Polish firmVector Global Logistics to develop third-party supply chain management services in Poland as Keswick Vector SCMPolska.This focuses on warehousing and transport related supply chain management activities in Poland, building on Vector's local expertise and Keswick Enterprises' international logistics experience, particularly in the clothing & textiles, automotive, food & grocery, other FMCG and retail sectors.


September 2012 Supply Chain Standard


www.supplychainstandard.com


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