Times are changing says Primeline 28


Starting from scratch with one key customer, and supported by the parent company Primeline Logistics, Primeline Express has developed into one of the major players in the overnight express Irish groupage market, says Development Director Steve Bell. “We started business in 2007,


with a very aggressive business plan to grow and develop sales


within the UK and Irish markets,” he told FBJ. “Around the same time the Irish economy fell into recession, with the UK economy not exactly flying either.” Paradoxically this helped the


new company as most businesses were looking to reduce costs due to the economic downturn meaning a reduction in the demand for storage in Ireland which had grown


considerably during the Celtic Tiger period. This change in trend helped companies like Primeline Express who were in a position to provide just-in-time delivery to and from Ireland. Bell comments: “Doors were


beginning to open, although one we wished had not was Entertainment UK, a subsidiary of the Woolworths Group, which went into receivership


Exports in danger of falling off ‘patent cliff’


Ireland’s services exports have now overhauled those of physical goods at 52% to 48%, according to the Irish Exporters Association. “Part of the problem is the


pharmaceutical ‘patent cliff’. Drugs that come off patent are going into generic production in other parts of the world,” says Simon McKeever, new IEA chief executive. “Manufacturers here are migrating to live cultures in place of powders and tablets. The R&D is taking place here, but it’s a slow approval process.” Exporters applauded October’s Irish Budget, which they saw


as one of the most pro-export budgets for decades, removing some of the impediments to investment in industry and strengthening tax credit and employment incentive schemes. “A lot of the things we looked for, we got,” McKeever says. The association takes an


annual poll of its members, asking which global markets they are prioritising. The UK, US and EU, by far Irish exporters’ main destinations, are still their major focus but interestingly, the Gulf is now in fourth place ahead of China.


Mexico is also seen as a hot target, and the IEA is launching a Latin American trade forum in April along the lines of its existing Asia trade forum. Latin America today accounts for no more than 2-3% of Irish exports. “We will run a programme of


events and round-tables and diplomatic missions to shine a light on this market and hopefully influence


McKeever says. Brazil Argentina


are quite


government,” and


closed


economies but markets such as Mexico, Peru and Colombia are seen as more accessible.


Nightline looks to double business


Nightline Logistics Group’s new freight arm, Nightline International, has carried more than 100,000 shipments in its first year and claims it can double in size by 2017. The company sits alongside parcel


division Nightline Delivers, the locker network Parcel Motel, warehousing subsidiary Nightline Logistics and business post specialist Eirpost in the restructured group. Expeditors has won


GDP (Good Distribution


Practice) approval from the Irish Medicines Board for pharmaceutical handling at its Cork warehouse. The forwarder was already IMB approved at its facilities in Shannon and Dublin.


three months into our involvement, leaving Express nursing heavy losses on the account. Fortunately Primeline Logistics held their nerve and group MD Danny Geoghegan backed by the Board of Directors remained very loyal to the project - a decision that eventually paid dividends.” For the future, while Bell sees


less opportunity in the Irish Market he does not believe that the Irish Express Groupage market has flat lined, “there will obviously come a time when the type of growth we have experienced in recent years (from 10,000 to 30,000 consignments per month) will slow down. The Irish marketplace is now beginning to embrace online shopping which is creating a surge in B2C deliveries. To adapt to this change in business trend we have invested heavily in technology. All shipments are barcoded and tracked throughout the delivery process up to and including final destination producing a real time proof of delivery which is


invaluable to our customers, some of which are shipping in excess of 2,000 consignments per week. The handheld PDA’s used have GPS tracking, enabling us and our customer to monitor every stage of a consignments journey.” The group’s philosophy is


to continue to evolve. A recent innovation for logistics was to get involved in a venture that markets and merchandises products, effectively owning the brand. “This has proved to be hugely successful and is generating spin offs in many other areas,” Bell says. Looking beyond the Irish


Market, Primeline Express started an overnight service to Scotland from England in early 2013 which has proved to be very successful. “On the back of


this Primeline


Express now offers a complete overnight UK pallet service. This service is unusual in that it does not rely on pallet networks. While the Pallet Networks have improved considerably over the last number years, if a customer wants its carrier


to retain total control over the shipment and be in a position to respond immediately to an issue, along with producing real time proof of delivery , then they may not get that with the Pallet Networks, but they will with Primeline Express.” In Early 2014 Primeline Express


set up a daily service to and from The North West of England (Warrington) and the South East of England which gives Primeline Express the capability to offer express services into Europe from Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. “Once again, there is no pallet network involvement, just good strong links with established European partners.” Looking ahead Bell envisages


Primeline Express to continue capturing market share in the UK-Ireland-UK express delivery sector, specialising more in home deliveries and also being a very strong player in niche markets servicing the high value and rapid pallet delivery sector in the UK and European groupage sector.


Issue 2 2014 Freight Business Journal


///IRELAND


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