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Issue 5 2012


Transland surprises itself with pace of growth


Transland’s Naas hub is handling 1,000 domestic pallets a night, plus international Palletways traffic


///IRELAND Cork goes bananas as Fyffes returns


Pictured left to right at the opening of the Port of Cork’s expanded container facility in May are port CEO Brendan Keating, Liam Fleming, country manager Maersk Ireland, Dermot O’Mahoney, Port of Cork chairman, and Con Connolly, supervisor for Fyffes. The new box handling


Transland Group massively beat its own expectations in the first half of the year, recording a 12% increase in pallet traffic. “We projected flat volumes for 2012, but it’s been a strong year so far,” says MD Kieran Conlon. The company is not taking


business at any price. With the going rate for distribution down around 40% in the last four years, Conlon says it is sometimes necessary to walk away. The simple Transland formula has been to focus on existing customers. “We know their credit histories and knew they had other business that we weren’t getting,” he says. “It’s easier than getting credit ratings on new customers.” Transland is handling 1,000


domestic pallets a night, using its own contractors for collections and deliveries in the Dublin area and the Palletxpress network, in which it is the largest shareholder, for the rest of Ireland. A pre-pay online business,


introduced for non-account holders in November 2010 and primarily aimed at small and medium-sized businesses, has built up to around 150 pallets a week. “Traditionally, this type of customer is difficult to manage. You always face the question of how to chase bad debts,” Conlon says. Anything except hazardous


chemicals is carried and typical shipments


include car parts,


textiles, furniture and personal effects. Customers who book early benefit from a bargain rate, with prices rising closer to the time of the shipment on a similar model to passenger airlines. International pallet traffic is


also on the increase. Transland joined the Palletways network in 2009 aſter previously working with UK Pallets. “It’s been a great marriage for us,” Conlon says. Despite the well documented


slowdown in Irish imports since the credit crunch, Transland


is bringing in 140 pallets from the UK and Europe per night, with just 70 going back out. One factor is that the company is an important player in the publishing market, consolidating magazine shipments at its 4,000 sq metre Birkenhead hub for distribution in both the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland.


facility, involving a €2.9 million investment in a new container compound and RTG, enabled Maersk to launch its first direct service to Ireland through Cork and sees, with Fyffes, a return of the banana trade to the port for the first time since the 1980s. Maersk’s weekly service starts from Vera Cruz, Mexico, and calls at ports in Costa Rica, Belize and Panama en route to Cork, Tilbury, Rotterdam and Bremerhaven. Keating emphasised the scale


of the downturn in the Irish import and export trade earlier this year, however, when he told the Cork Chamber of Commerce that the country’s main deepwater port handled 8.6 million tonnes of cargo last year compared with 10.1 million tonnes at the peak of the market in 2008. He explained: “If Ireland is to


Kieran Conlon: building volume with existing customers


A handful of pallets leapfrog


over Palletways’ UK hub in Lichfield en route to and from Europe. Conlon credits Palletways with opening up Germany and other major European markets on a genuine multi-operator system, rather than setting up strategic partnerships as rival networks have done. “That


involves different


protocols and cultures, but the Palletways model is easier to sell because you all sign the same code of practice and the operating standards are the same,” Conlon says. “It might cost you a day [ex- Ireland] because you go via the UK, but it’s a daily departure.” Pallet services are typically


tailored for one to six pallets. It is difficult to compete with groupage and part-load operators on larger consignments, he points out. But the continuing availability of a daily service is important in light of reduced frequencies by groupage operators in Ireland, who in many cases have cut three services a week to one or two.


continue to develop its open economy, which is dependent on trade for growth and prosperity, there is a need for our port to expand. Ireland as an island with peripheral status requires that we have ports which allow goods to be delivered to consumers and businesses at the lowest cost and as quickly as


possible.” The Port of Cork’s strategic


plan, anticipating a doubling of container traffic and bulk cargoes by 2030, lays out requirements for a new container terminal adjacent to the ro-ro terminal in Ringaskiddy; bulk and general


cargo facilities at the deepwater berth in Ringaskiddy; additional berths and cargo facilities at Marino Point, if the port succeeds in buying it; a multi- purpose berth adjacent to the proposed


container terminal;


and bulk liquid handling and storage facilities at Marino Point.


EFL becomes first pet passport carrier


Irish logistics firm EFL International


Distribution has


become the first company in the Republic to become an approved ‘Pet Passport System’ carrier This follows changes in


European legislation relating to the movement of pet animals within the EU, as well as international moves to and from EU countries. EFL International received


authorisation from the Irish Government Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, to operate as an approved registered carrier of pets into Ireland from other EU member


states in December 2011. Now, the Dublin-based company has become the first freight company in Ireland to be granted authorisation to operate as a transporter of pet cats and dogs under regulation 6 of the European Communities (Pet Passport) Regulations 2012. This allows EFL International


to provide full document and animal examination of pets arriving from countries considered to be of high risk for animal diseases, services that to date were only available at a single Government-approved veterinary clinic six km from


Dublin Airport. EFL managing director, Eddie


Mullin, said: “EFL is now the first company in Ireland that is able to manage the complete importation process for pets, from all parts of the world. This includes customs clearance, veterinary examination and documentation checks to ensure a safe and speedy release of the animal to its owner. The service is provided from a mobile veterinary unit, by a registered and approved veterinary surgeon working with a member of our pet specialist team on the day the animal arrives into Ireland.”


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