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Issue 7 2015 - Freight Business Journal


Space shortage surprises warehousemen


As Ireland plunged into recession, off the back of an implosion in commercial property development, it seemed as if the country would have enough warehouse capacity to last a generation. Yet space is already at a


premium, according to Garrett Thornton, managing director of JMC Van Trans - especially for larger facilities of more than 10,000sq metres. JMC is better positioned than


many competitors to expand at its Newlands site alongside Dublin’s M50 orbital motorway, on a small industrial park where some neighbouring units are vacant. The company has 8,000sq


metres of cross-dock capacity at and recently converted an adjoining shed to create a 2,000sq m storage and pick-and- pack facility. “That’s an additional service which would not be profitable on its own. We’re not looking for huge bulk storage contracts,” Thornton says. “But we can import whole


boxes and if it takes the client three months to sell the goods, having the new unit means it’s not a problem for us. It also enables us to help start-ups who don’t want to take on their own premises.” He adds that JMC also has first call on another 5,000sq metres of


Joint MDs Garrett Thornton and Garrett Murphy with a trailer in new livery, underlining JMC’s pan-European credentials.


warehousing at the site when the time is right to expand further. Bigger businesses had further


to fall during the downturn but are coming back the fastest as the Irish economy rebounds, Thornton says. JMC has seen monthly year-on-


year improvements of 12% to 17% so far in 2015, and income is finally coming into sync with volume growth. The fall in fuel prices has also been helpful, he comments. “A couple of years ago, we were fearing prices would reach €2 per litre. Now it’s nearer €1.20.” As Palletline’s representative


for the entire Irish Republic, JMC averages six trailers per night to the pallet network’s hubs in Manchester, Glasgow and Birmingham. The UK now accounts for 30% of JMC’s


business while Europe, which it access via Palletline and other partners, contributes another 5%. “Irish businesses have become


more skilled at marketing to the UK,” Thornton says. “It’s important not to rely exclusively on the domestic market as you’re too susceptible to the seven-year economic swing. “The UK is on a different


cycle - it went down later than Ireland but we came back sooner. The exchange rate is helping us currently, though it makes imports from the UK more expensive and we have seen a small dip inbound.” JMC has 15 regional Irish


partners, some of whom came on board when the company absorbed


the defunct ONCE


pallet network in early 2013, while others were entirely new. Traffic via the JMC/Palletline


network can account for anything from 30% up to 90% of turnover for these smaller operators. “We now encourage them to sell in their own region - we give them the skill set and the pricing tools, they can tap into our IT system, and of course we offer the sales option to the UK,” Thornton says. The acquisition of Manchester-


based Harbour International Freight in 2013 gave JMC a niche in hazardous goods but more significantly took the company into the deep sea market. It can now sell an inbound LCL service from points of origin in China, Vietnam and India to “a thousand customers” across Ireland, Thornton says. Where the company is working


on behalf of multinationals importing full container loads, he adds: “We can clear boxes from Dublin docks, break them down and make the final delivery.”


///IRELAND


Forwarders flock back to Dublin


The International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA) will make a long-awaited return to Ireland for its 2016 World Congress, an occasion which will also mark the organisation’s 90th anniversary. FIATA, which represents


around 40,000 forwarding and logistics firms employing an estimated eight to 10 million people, has not staged its congress in Europe since Geneva in 2009. Its only previous Irish conference was in Dublin in 1981. Sean McCool, founder of International Airline Marketing who helped coordinate that event, recalls that it attracted one of FIATA’s best ever attendances with 1,200 delegates. Book-ending his long career


in airline cargo sales, McCool, now aged 83, is on the organising committee for the congress again 35 years later. So too is his colleague Karl Louwrens, IAM’s marketing and business development director. “Despite the consolidation


that has occurred in the industry over the years, this is still one of the freight industry’s biggest networking events,” Louwrens says. “We want to highlight solutions in international collaboration, explore new


trends in global logistics, best practice, trading opportunities and technological innovation, and are planning a series of interactive workshops. “Our objective is to bring over


1,000 people here again, which would make it the biggest FIATA congress for five years,” he adds. “We’re already working on a social programme that will give our guests a full taste of Dublin city and Irish culture.” Next year’s conference and


exhibition will take place from 3 to 8 October at the Convention Centre Dublin. The purpose- built venue, which opened in 2010, has become an iconic landmark on the skyline of the city’s redeveloping Docklands area.


Seamus Kavanagh, executive


officer of the Irish International Freight Association made a


presentation to FIATA


about the plans for Dublin to mark the official close of the association’s 2015 Congress in Taipei in September. Kavanagh is pictured, centre, with, from leſt, Huxiang Zhao, president of FIATA and chairman of Sinotrans; Francesco Parisi, immediate past president of FIATA;


Peter Yang Shu-Ping,


chairman of Taipei Airfreight Forwarders and Logistics Association of Taiwan; and Steven Huang, chairman of the Taipei Customs Brokers Association. Further information at


http://fiata2016.org


Shannon delights in new Turkish link


Irish exporters have welcomed Turkish Airlines’ decision to launch freighter services from Shannon to Chicago and Atlanta, Ireland’s only direct all- cargo flights to North America. The carrier began by making


a refuelling stop at Shannon on route from Istanbul to Chicago in March of this year. It was then


granted permission to


pick up cargo in Ireland under its fiſth-freedom rights and now operates a new weekly service on an Istanbul-Shannon- Chicago-Maastricht-Istanbul routing, departing SNN on Friday aſternoons. A second weekly service with


an Istanbul-Shannon-Atlanta- Istanbul rotation has also been introduced, departing Ireland on Friday evenings. Both services


are operated using 70-tonne


payload A330 freighters. Adnan Cetinkaya, Dublin-


based cargo agent for Turkish Airlines, says the main focus initially is on Chicago as one of the world’s major air freight hubs. Joe Buckley, cargo and


technical traffic development manager at Shannon, adds that the flights open new options for exporters to the US with tight supply chain constraints, particularly where high-value products such as medical devices, pharmaceuticals and electronics are concerned. Most air cargo from the west


of Ireland currently has to be trucked to Dublin, to the UK or even to European airports due to a lack of direct capacity.


“The US is Ireland’s largest


air cargo export market and this service will benefit Irish exporters as they will be able to enjoy Shannon’s uncongested cargo facilities and efficient processing,” Buckley says. “Chicago O’Hare had a throughput of over 1.5 million tonnes last year. As well as its good links to US road and rail networks,


the airport offers


connections to over 200 cities across the US and the world, opening a whole range of new distribution channels from Shannon.” Rose Hynes, chairman


of Shannon Group, greeted Turkish Airlines’ launch as “the liſt off for an air freight hub at Shannon - another step in the transformation of the airport.”


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