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Issue 3 2015 - Freight Business Journal Maru keeps it under control


Maru International is unusual for a freight forwarder and groupage operator in that it operates its own trucks and trailers – as well as owning its own 130,000sq ſt warehouse at Dewsbury, not far


from Leeds. While it does


subcontract where necessary, the company likes to keep as much of its operation under its own control as possible. This extends to it loading its own


seafreight groupage containers at its own premises – it gives it a degree of control over its operation that is lacking if you subcontract it to a remote third party, says director Gary Sawyer. Maru was set up 30 years ago


in the wake of the bankruptcy of another major local forwarder, and started out with groupage services to the Benelux and Germany. This is still one of the bedrocks of the business, although other parts of Europe and seafreight are also


Ital Logistics may be the company’s name, but there’s as much emphasis on Iberia and Greece as Italy at the Manchester-based forwarder and groupage operator, says managing director, Phil Denton. These days, the business splits roughly 40% Italy, 40% Spain and Portugal, with the balance divided between Greece, the rest of Europe, and maritime and air freight forwarding services. The company moved into new


premises at Heywood on the north side of Manchester close to the M62 trans-Pennine motorway in December last year. It had been sharing the site of Cardinal Maritime at Sharston near Manchester airport, but the operation had outgrown the available space there. The new site is a cut above the average forwarder’s premises


–


brand new and kitted out to a high specification with an investment of around £600,000. It’s all a far cry from Denton and Ital Logistics’ first premises – two unrendered brick cubicles in the back of a warehouse in Rochdale. “We’re doing fine,” Denton


important these days. The founder and owner


Vaughan Woolfit is still very involved in the day to day business, even putting in spells at the security cabin at the entrance, just to keep the drivers on their toes. As time went on, other directors


joined the business, bringing their own particular areas of expertise - Roger Sales majored on East Europe, for example, and today the company serves all parts of that region and there is also a joint venture company with the same name in Lithuania, which acts as a springboard for Russia and central Asia. Another director lent his


expertise in seafreight forwarding, project cargo, cross-trades and airfreight. Ten years ago, Gary Sawyer himself joined from Diamond International and brought his knowledge of seafreight consolidation. Today,


Maru International offers services to the Far and Middle East, India and, most recently, Sri Lanka. “The fact that we load containers


ourselves is a big selling point,” Sawyer explains. “It means we can check paperwork ourselves, make last-minute decisions – its very hands-on. Sure, most of the big forwarders receive in this area, but then they trunk it down to London.” Maru International packs a lot


of activity into its small yard at Ravensthorpe Industrial Estate on the outskirts of Dewsbury. It has acquired an off-site haulage yard so trucks can be parked off site when they’re not needed or are being serviced but space for expansion has been hard to come by, at least at a reasonable price. The next stage of development,


says Sawyer, will be to develop imports. New export trailer destinations will also be developed to Switzerland and Austria.


Ital at home in its new Pennine powerhouse Ital has taken on five new


continues. “Turnover was £6.3 million in 2011 and again in 2012, but then increased to £7.5m in 2013 and again to £9.3m in 2014, and there’s every indication it will rise again this year.” Recession or not, business has grown in every year since 2008 and Ital was recruiting sales staff at a time when other forwarders were laying them off, Denton declares. He says he had to search quite


long and hard for its new premises. “There was property available, but nothing in quite the right shape, size or condition. Also, we wanted somewhere modern and with good security. “We redesigned the site totally,


and drew up our building with multiple doors and dock levellers. It had to be bespoke to our exacting requirements.”


warehouse people - staff strength is now up to 25 – and the company is interviewing for sales and operations personnel. There is no shortage of potential recruits in the area, but Denton says he has quite unique standards. “We have a very different way of working compared with most freight companies - we’re almost like a family. I need people who are enthusiastic, loyal and dedicated. There are lots of good people available, but I’m very particular.” Denton also likes to train his


staff in all aspects of the company’s work, so that they can if need be take over parts of the operation that they are not directly responsible for. A sales person will need to know operations, and vice versa. Like most forwarders nowadays,


Ital’s business does not come solely from its immediate hinterland in the North-west but from a large swathe of the country. “That said, I’d say about 35% of exports do come from the North-west and for Italy it would be even higher,” Denton states.


First tenant for Port Salford


The Peel Group has named food and


drink logistics specialist


Culina Group as the first major tenant at the new National Import Centre being developed by Peel Land and Property as part of its multi-million pound Port Salford development west of Manchester. Culina Group will take


occupation of the first warehouse distribution unit to be built on the Port Salford site, a tri-modal inland port and distribution park, accessible by rail, road and short sea-shipping. The property comprises 26,022sq m (280,000sq ſt) of accommodation, including ancillary offices, service yard and parking. Some 280 jobs will be created at the logistics centre, which is expected to be completed


by April 2016 and fully operational by the end of 2016. Port Salford, on the banks of the


Manchester Ship Canal, is part of the Atlantic Gateway project being led by Peel Ports, which involves the redevelopment of the port and canal network and surrounding land between Manchester and Liverpool. It will have direct vessel access from the new Liverpool2 container terminal currently under construction and due for completion late this year. Most container loads are


///UK NORTH WEST


expected to arrive at Port Salford from Liverpool via the Manchester Ship Canal, resulting in significant carbon emission reductions and environmental savings. On completion, Port Salford


will comprise over 148,699sq m (1.6m sq ſt) of warehousing on the site which extends to 50 hectares (150 acres). Further plans are in progress for a second phase, which will bring the total site to 101 hectares (250 acres), with 370,000sq m (4 million sq ſt) of development opportunities.


Rhenus seeks space for growth


Rhenus Logistics is on the hunt for new premises for its Manchester head office – but the search is not an easy one, says director Gary Dodsworth. “It’s very hard to find space at the moment,” he told FBJ. “We tend to work with bespoke buildings with multiple loading bays and you can’t get those ready- made.” Rhenus’ current site at Trafford


Park is around 3,000sq m but Dodsworth would like


around


double that amount of space, ideally in the same area. “Trafford Park has an abundance of businesses and quite a tightly- drawn catchment area, so ideally we’d like to stay there. More importantly Rhenus has had a presence in Manchester since the 1950s; it was previously Hauser Forwarding. “We very much wish to prolong our association to the City. Hauser became part of the Rhenus Group in 2006 and many of the former Hauser staff are still with Rhenus, their knowledge of servicing businesses in the North West is extensive,” says Dodsworth. Manchester may be German-


owned Rhenus Logistics’ UK head office but it is by no means the largest freight facility. That is in fact on the other side of the Pennines in


Bradford. There is also a sales office in Liverpool. Both Bradford and Manchester


operate frequent direct groupage services to a wide range of European destinations, not just single hubs serving whole countries, but many direct into important regional centres too. “Bradford in fact has the largest number of direct services of any of our branches,” Dodsworth declares. “Tomorrow (Friday), for example, we’ll load over 80 vehicles with around 30 destined for 13 different locations in Germany.” The routes cover all of Europe, as far east as Ukraine and Russia. Manchester has plenty of direct


routes of its own and any cargo for places not so served can make the short hop across the Pennines to Bradford. Some traffic moves the other way too; Manchester specialises, for historic reasons, in Austria and Switzerland. Worldwide, incidentally, the


Rhenus organisation employs 24,000 people and services 390 locations. Planned new services include


direct road links to the Middle East, says Dodsworth “We also have plans for Italy – we’re looking at the options for the south of the


country.” Rhenus already serves the north of the country and has terminals at Torino, Milan, Verona and Ancona. The UK arm of the company has


plenty of autonomy in developing services and selecting partners, Dodsworth adds. Rhenus also has an extensive sea


and air forwarding arm, and is also doing quite a bit of contract logistics business, for example importing replacement car brake parts from China and the Far East into the UK and it also sends line-feed parts out of the UK to the car plants of two large German automotive manufacturers. “There are in fact around 200 companies in the UK supplying these parts of which 30% are from the North, although the largest number is in the Midlands,” Dodsworth points out. He continues: “There’s an


abundance of freight forwarders all along the M62 corridor and there’s a reason for that – the amount of industry in this part of the world.” He calculates that there are


perhaps 50, maybe 100 forwarders in the Manchester area alone – ranging from one-man companies to big multinationals – and probably a similar number in the Leeds area. “So competition is pretty fierce.”


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