22


Issue 3 2018 - Freight Business Journal


///UK NORTH WEST


Irish Sea specialist harbours growth ambitions


Long-established Irish Sea specialist Harbour International Freight has been branching out lately, says UK general manager, Steve Swinburn. Having only joined the Pallex network two years ago, in February it won the network operator’s business development award in February, “which for a fairly new member


is quite an achievement,” as Swinburn points out. Harbour International, which


is based in Eccles to the west of the city, represents most of the Manchester postcodes for the network. One of the reasons for joining, says Swinburn, was the ability to offer customers of its Irish Sea services a collection and


delivery service all over the UK- in effect a one-stop shop. The company’s turnover has


surged from £900,000 five years ago to no less than £4.5m now. Harbour International’s Irish


business has been growing too, lately. On February this year, it bought out fellow North-west based Irish Sea specialist European Cargo


Systems, closing its Heywood depot, concentrating all business in Eccles and taking on key members of staff. “ECS was very focussed on the North-west and Yorkshire,” Swinburn states. “It’s added around a third to our Irish business.” Harbour’s Irish Sea business is


now averaging eight trailers a night to Dublin which acts as its hub for


Rhenus makes its presence felt


Rhenus Logistics’ impressive new terminal on the A57 trunk road, west of Manchester has proved to be quite an effective recruitment tool, says general manager Rob Mulligan. “Quite a few people have contacted us aſter driving past and asked what vacancies we have,” he says. At 500,000sq ſt astride one of


Lancashire’s main arterial routes, you can hardly miss the place. Rhenus’ new Manchester


headquarters, opened last October on the Peel Group- owned Port Salford estate. So far Rhenus is the only freight forwarder to have taken up residence


there – development will soon tempt


other companies to the area. The new location is five miles


from the M6, the forwarder’s other major northern hub at Bradford 48 miles away and the airport within ten minutes (Manchester traffic permitting of course.) Traditionally, Manchester’s


freight industry has been centred on the large but ageing Trafford Park industrial closer into the built-up area and the airport – which, like all major air hubs, is now quite an expensive location. Mulligan’s fellow general


though


domestic operator Great Bear also has a very sizeable shed on the adjacent plot – but Mulligan is convinced that the new


manager Simon Staples – who recently joined Rhenus following its purchase of his company, Staples International - is convinced that other firms will soon follow Rhenus’ lead, not


the whole of southern Ireland, partner JMC operating some 16 depots around the country. In Northern Ireland, long-standing partner Express Freight, based in Craigavon, provides the local link. UK/Ireland is still something of a


niche area, especially in northwest England, says Swinburn. He reckons that he still has something like half a dozen direct competitors – in addition to the multinational carriers, many of whom do however subcontract their Irish work to firms like Harbour. Links between the region and Ireland are strong and Harbour’s customers


The new hub will also allow


Rhenus to bring all its activities under one roof. Mulligan explains: “The old Rhenus depot was essentially a road one, whereas this will be completely multimodal.


It will allow us


to cross-sell our services, and do things like keep trailers for specific services permanently on site, which we couldn’t do at the old facility.” There is also some potential


land available to expand the site and the building


itself


just freight operators but major importers too. Rhenus


Logistics November has last put


on a major growth spurt since


year.


Staples, which was based in the Altrincham area in south Manchester, has moved its operation to the new Rhenus


base, explains Simon Staples, who adds that a decision will shortly be made on whether to brand everything as Rhenus. Staples specialises in air and


ocean, and also road services, especially to the Mediterranean region countries such as Tunisia and Malta.


Airfreight agent enjoys the Good life


Airfreight capacity is tight the world over, but the situation is just a little easier on flights to


and from Manchester


compared with London Heathrow says


Mark try to Reid,


commercial manager at John Good Air. “We


support


Manchester wherever we can,” he explains. “We bring a lot of London cargo up here to avoid the congestion and other issues at Heathrow. Also, we find we can buy better rates, there


are more dangerous


goods facilities available and more availability of packing companies. It means we can get shipments turned around more quickly than at Heathrow.” Reid would not claim that


finding airfreight capacity is exactly easy even out of


Manchester, but you can


always find space on the likes of Oman Air, Etihad and Emirates, for example. Cathay Pacific


also operates there


and recently Chinese carrier Hainan Airlines has started flights. John Good moves shipments from all over China to Hainan’s home airport in the centre of the country in order to be able to fly direct into Manchester,


rather than use


Heathrow. Saudia also always seems to


have space out of Manchester when Heathrow is full, says Reid. Since the John Good Group


opened its airfreight arm in Manchester city centre two years ago, business has gone from strength to strength, says Reid: “Our job numbers are going up month on month.”


John Good Group was


already established in the centre of Manchester so it made sense to put the airfreight arm at the same location, rather than at the airport itself, says Reid. The local chamber of commerce is just round the corner which speeds up stamping


of certificates of


origin. (The chamber does have a small office at the airport, but the large city centre one can process certificates more quickly, says Reid.) Much of the business comes


via the sea and road arms of the parent company, where customers need something delivered urgently by air, but there are also plenty of other customers, says Reid. Typical traffics outbound


are chemicals, perfumes and engineering products, along


with clothing. Strong markets for John Good Air include the Far East, Middle East and the Americas, along with Iceland – served by Icelandair freighters from East Midlands Airport. Inbound, Asian foodstuffs strongly,


figure and even


bathroom accessories or even heavy building products like marble or stone. One thing that is lacking at


Manchester, in common with other airports in this country is full freighter capacity. Since the UK Department for Transport decided to ‘sack’ the sniffer dogs that carried out security checks on dense cargo, many freighter operators have pulled out of this country. The inability to fly certain categories of cargo tipped the balance and made many services unprofitable.


has been designed to be as environmentally-friendly as possible with intelligent electrics and recycling of rainwater from the roof, for example. Rhenus itself already has


a substantial air and ocean business of its own, which was predominantly handled by its offices in Bradford and elsewhere. These will remain very much involved but the


include anything from one-man bands to major multinationals. Harbour does at


least now


have a strong domestic business in the UK through Pallex if Irish traffic does reduce, but it will also explore the idea of setting up a customs clearance department and possibly gaining AEO status, or maybe some sort of customs bond. Ironically, the company’s first activity was handling customs clearance in the North-west and Ireland, but that was back in the 1970s and customs clearance hasn’t been required for Ireland since 1992.


new Manchester base will allow further expansion as the Rhenus global network continues to grow. It has doubled its presence in China, entered Vietnam and Australia and increased its presence in Brazil, for instance. The next push, says Mulligan, will be on Turkey where Rhenus has recently signed an agreement with local operator Solmaz in Istanbul. Rhenus’ vision is that it will


be among the top five world forwarders, but still a family- owned company and still retaining its core values, says Mulligan. Perhaps it is its German


heritage, but Rhenus has always set great store on training and staff development. “That is one of Rhenus’ great strengths,” says Simon Staples. “They don’t just stick people behind a desk and hope they’ll get on with it – it’s not a bums on seats approach.”


DSV on the road to success


DSV’s current North-west facility on Roundthorn Industrial Estate in Wythenshawe, south Manchester is a road-only depot, servicing all export and import services for the North West and Yorkshire Region. The region has seen some


development of new logistics sites over recent years and large companies such as Amazon have built terminals close by. DSV’s


office and crossdock


warehouse facility is close to the main motorway network, allowing it to service all areas with daily collections and deliveries. There are currently 64 DSV Road staff on site, including operations, customer services,


distribution and warehousing. DSV is currently expanding its


customer service team office in Wythenshawe to incorporate air and sea colleagues alongside the


existing road team. DSV Road senior director, Denise


sales, strategic sales,


Clarke explained: “Export markets are booming and as a result we are continually strengthening the customer service team in Wythenshawe to ensure we can accommodate our growing customer base. Due to the increase in demand from our customers, we have made a significant investment in the development of more office space to accommodate further expansion of our customer service teams, including enabling colleagues from our Air & Sea division to move into this owned facility. “The primary reason for the


expansion is to bring both divisions together. However it is hoped that this closer connection will bring opportunities to both divisions in customer growth.”


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36