Ireland: the thinking man’s logistics hub 22


Some of the talk about “green shoots of recovery” in the Irish economy has been premature, thinks Jamie O’Reilly, general manager for Norbert Dentressangle Overseas Ireland. But if evidence were needed that the climate is finally improving, it is that shipping lines are trying at last to nudge their rates up. Sitting where he does in the


supply chain and seeing the likely impact on the price of clothing and fast-moving consumer goods, O’Reilly is relaxed about


this,


and trusts his customers will be equally accepting. “Operators must look to reinvest


in their own businesses,” he says. He applies this comment to hauliers as well. “You see hardly any tractors (trucks) newer than 2005-06. Investment is urgently needed. You will always be undercut by the guy who will run till his tyres are bald. But he’s going to run into service issues.” Responsible operators


have


to be prepared to lose revenue to protect margin - and Dentressangle managed to hold its own in revenue terms in Ireland last year. O’Reilly claims some success in


generating more business from the existing customer base. The company is increasingly


involved in global supply chain solutions. He quotes the example of a manufacturer of cycle parts with bases in the US, Asia and Europe. Although less than 2% of its products ever touch Ireland, it was Norbert Dentressangle in Dublin that was asked to redesign a back-end system to support the client’s new e-commerce platform and advise on the most suitable location for a European distribution facility, says O’Reilly. “We worked out a ‘centre


of gravity’ solution based on weight of sales per route, and also factoring in language ability and the need for a flexible, well educated workforce,” O’Reilly says. Closeness to sea and air freight


solutions was important, as the client has 1,500 SKUs and needs to use both modes to ship product optimally from its multiple points of manufacture. The chosen DC location aſter a three-month consultancy was Oss in the Netherlands. Ireland oſten emerges as


a surprisingly cost-effective warehousing solution once all the data is crunched. Distribution to the UK market can be carried out more cheaply from Ireland than from the Benelux region, or even from within the UK itself, says Variables include the


opportunity to operate multi- user warehousing, labour and shipping costs - for example, it is typically 60% cheaper to ship a trailer from Ireland to the UK than vice-versa - taking into account the tax regime in the chosen location, and intangibles such as political, technological and operational threats to the business. Synergies can be found in


unlikely ways, O’Reilly points out. It can be perfectly acceptable to move temperature-controlled food products out of Ireland and turn off the refrigeration for a return load of textiles as long as the correct procedures are followed to avoid cross- contamination - and provided each client signs off on the process. There are north-south


examples too. During the Spanish growing


season of October-


SkanTrans delves deeper into Europe


SkanTrans Ireland’s FTL and gropuage services to and from Scandinavia suffered a loss of volume last year. Imports of truck parts and engineering equipment have “taken a battering” during the recession, according to director Conor Loughran. The company has


subcontracted its warehouse and distribution to PD Flaherty in Blanchardstown, where it has 1,000sq m metres of transit space,


replacing its own facilities in Santry Hall and Donabate. Although Ireland’s retailers


were “not ecstatic” about their Christmas trading, Loughran says imports from Sweden, including retail goods, stabilised from August onwards and are still on the up. B2B orders are also increasing. SkanTrans is expanding its


reach into eastern Europe and appointed a new partner in Poland, ET Logistik, at the end of last year.


It is also working with Allgaier in Germany, from whose Gernsheim hub deliveries can be made as far as Turkey. The company has also joined


the Lognet global forwarding network to help further broaden its base from the traditional Scandinavian market. “We’re starting to get involved


in the AOG [aircraſt on ground] business through these network partnerships,” Loughran says.


Issue 2 2014 Freight Business Journal


Rhenus opens Belfast terminal


Rhenus Logistics has opened


a facility in Belfast. It will allow direct groupage services by road between Europe and Northern Ireland as well as a direct Scandinavian service as well as enabling customers to benefit from FCL and LCL rates when exporting or importing worldwide. Rhenus’ MD, David Williams, said:


///IRELAND


“The opening of the facility in Northern Ireland has enabled us to further improve the service that we provide. We have a number of ambitious plans for 2014 and the expansion of our network will allow us to cover an even wider- reaching market and will also let us further support customers worldwide.”


April, everyone wants to take perishables to northern France, Germany, the Benelux, the UK and Ireland. The trick is


for


forwarders to find cost-effective backloads to Spain. O’Reilly says Norbert Dentressangle has “consistent flows going south”. And, potentially, east. Among


other supply chain projects it is managing from its Dublin HQ, the company is currently advising FMCG and textile exporters on how to penetrate the sought-aſter Russian market.


Lo-lo fails to liſt off in improving Dublin


Ro-ro traffic through the port of Dublin increased by 5.9% to 761,600 units last year. The rate of improvement accelerated in the last quarter, when the total was 7.1% up on the fourth quarter of 2012. Liquid and dry bulk throughput


was also up sharply, but Dublin’s lo-lo traffic decreased by 2.0% as measured in box numbers over the full year, and by 3.3% in weight terms. And figures published in November by the Irish Maritime


Development Office (IMDO) confirm that lo-lo is slower to recover than trailer traffic, with a 2% decline to 149,423 units for Ireland as a whole in the first nine months of 2013. “The container market


continued to struggle during the quarter as sluggish demand in advanced economies constrained growth. Container exports declined by 3% while imports declined by 1%,” IMDO reported.


Cronus watches the clock


A new Warrenpoint-based line, Cronus Logistics, promises to bring a new dimension to the Irish Sea transport market. The company is offering


a multimodal containerised transport service between Northern Ireland and the UK mainland with a quoted door-to- door transit time of 48 hours. This speed of delivery is only possible, says MD Nicola Walker, because - uniquely in this market - Cronus is operating its own ships. Two chartered vessels, each


with a capacity of 120 containers, have been running four times a week between Warrenpoint and Bristol since early February.


“With this frequency of


departure, we can run a lo-lo service more on the ro-ro model,” Walker says. “We have invested in 200 45ſt curtainsiders plus standard boxes and flat-racks and we will have trailers based in both ports to give us full control from the point of collection to the end destination. We’re the only Irish Sea logistics provider offering a full door-to-door service for dry freight.” Cronus also offers a quay-to-


quay container feeder service for 20ſt, 40ſt and 45ſt containers, including refrigerated boxes. Where existing feeder services may be out of sync with deepsea


schedules through ports such as Southampton, the company claims to offer a solution through the regularity of departures into and out of Bristol. Walker


spent five years as


divisional director at DSV in Belfast responsible for FTL and LTL business before joining Cronus to spearhead this new venture. The anchor eastbound tenant, which operated the route on a one-way trial basis over the last 18 months, has invested a six-figure sum in the upgraded service. “We can now look to balance their


exports with westbound traffic and become sustainable against the ro- ro operators,” Walker says.


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