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Issue 5 2020 - Freight Business Journal


was an added- value service for our existing


road groupage clients but it has become increasingly important as a business centre in its own right. We now have a team of 31,


including myself and Dianne, most of whom have been here for between 10 and 17 years. Whilst a big investment, taking our own premises enabled growth. When we left Sharston we were just 20 people, and our turnover then was £9.4 million. Last year closed at £15.5 million.


Does ITAL have any niche areas that it specialises in?


Dangerous goods is a big Ital specialism. Over the years, I worked with many shippers in the chemical industry and when I set up Ital I realised that this was an area where there were fewer groupage operators providing a service. So we made this a specialism - and decided to do it properly. Some of the clients I was


working with in previous companies were in the chemical sector so I learned how to transport their goods. Having used a consultant in the first couple of years, and seeing the opportunity in this sector, I considered it essential to take the role of DGSA (Dangerous Goods Safety Advisor) to comply with legislation and ‘do it proper’. So I became our first DGSA. That was 2004. Now we have four qualified


Dangerous Goods Safety Advisors, including myself. The DG regulations are becoming more onerous, although I do in fact wish that they would become more so and that there was stricter monitoring – both to improve safety in the supply chain and to ensure that only qualified companies move hazardous cargoes. Specialising in dangerous


goods has stood us in good stead and last year contributed 24.3% of our total shipments, with many of our forwarder competitors using our services. This indeed is testament itself to the quality of service which we provide in this sector, and also to our neutrality. In the most recent decade,


I have devoted a lot of time to developing the HAZculator®, which looks up all hazardous goods data


///ITAL lot can still change.


You have built up Ital from scratch over 20 years.


How are you going to hand on that legacy?


It would be very easy to accept a large cheque for the company from a multinational and indeed I have been approached on a couple of occasions in the last


few years. But for the different


modes of transport – ADR for road, IMDG for sea freight and ferries, and also Eurotunnel and other road tunnels - and returns everything you need to know. It saves time and, more importantly, reduces human error, dealing with the problems of combining multiple hazardous loads and alerting users should they accidentally combine incompatible goods. We also have our new


bespoke freight software FREIGHTsoft®, which incorporates the HAZculator®, and handles all aspects of quoting and booking jobs, accounts, load planning, warehousing, inventory storage, CRM and integration with other systems. And more.


Recently, the thoughts of everyone in the freight industry – and business generally – have been


dominated by the Covid crisis. How well has Ital


coped and what effect has it had on the company?


First of all, let me say that the single most important factor that has allowed us to get through this is the comradeship of all our people here. Their response has been truly unbelievable and they are the main reason why Ital Logistics will get through the crisis.


During the early stages of the crisis, we regretfully


I’m


very mindful that without the people that work in it, the company wouldn’t be where it is today, so it’s very important those who have worked the hardest at Ital Logistics have a long-term future in it. As I have said, most of our


furloughed 14 people on the expectation of huge losses, given that


Italy and Spain


contribute more than 64% of our total business. We also purchased laptops and switches so that many people could also work from home. We still had four people working in the office, along with two in the warehouse and myself. Everyone worked extremely hard to keep things going, and we ourselves kept everyone abreast of what was happening. However, we soon found that


April wasn’t as quiet a month as we thought it would be – we were in fact moving around 75% of our normal business. Furthermore, taking into account government support, we are operating at more or less break-even level, so all in all we’ve been pretty resilient. Our specialisation in the


carriage of dangerous goods has been one of the reasons. Perhaps lucky, but very few


of our customers have shut up shop completely, and we’ve been able to keep our services going to all our markets. Indeed, the other factor that has helped us is that we have many good, loyal customers. We’ve also picked up a lot of business for our freight forwarding


department – in fact, April was our best ever month for sea freight - which will stand us in good stead for the future, especially after Brexit. We have gradually brought


people back, with just seven possibly still on furlough when this goes to print, and hope to be back to full strength before too long.


Any thoughts on how Ital


and the industry generally will emerge from the Covid crisis?


My personal thoughts are that


the period of greatest


risk is not immediately after the crisis, but next year, when there could be the biggest risk of company insolvencies. The government has offered loans and subsidies to keep businesses afloat – arguably, more than any other in the world – but there will come a time when all the deferred tax and VAT will have to be paid, and people shouldn’t forget that. The government needs to take a gentle approach to companies in March, which I believe will be the period of real pain. And it will be a long term process – the financial experts say it will be a six to eight-quarter recovery from this financial crisis and when you factor in Brexit, well, it may even be longer. The best thing that we can


do is to keep on doing what we have done for the last 20 years. Yes, the landscape of business is changing, but if it isn’t broken, we shouldn’t try to fix it, just ‘tweak it’ here and there.


Any thoughts on Brexit? What can anyone say that hasn’t already been said on


this subject? Nonetheless, we did get all our preparation work done, as far as was possible, prior to the previous deadlines, so we are as geared up as anyone can be. Our software has been adjusted to provide the information necessary to pass to our customs brokers, and we will


people have been here over ten years, one has been here 17 years and, once they come here, they tend not to leave. This year, we were going to


start a five-year management buyout process. Obviously, this has had to be put on hold, but this is still the intended route plan, with myself retaining a small shareholding. It is just


further adjust it in Q4 to ensure it meets needs, and will pick up on the necessary training. Brexit has been


overshadowed by Covid, but I haven’t changed my diary. A


delayed and we will pick this back up about a year from now. I hope that way we will be


able to maintain the ethos of a family company – and look forward to the next 20 years.


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