Palletways plans freight revolution
Just as TNT re-wrote the rule book in parcels for the UK and Europe, so Palletways can do the same in the even larger freight market, says new chief executive.
Palletways is set to announce significantly improved profit levels as well as rapid growth for 2003/4, new chief executive and shareholder James Wilson revealed last week. He confirmed also that there were several investment companies interested in buying into the firm, apart from Phoenix Equity, which is now the major shareholder, having bought out 3i. The strong financial performance last year will be detailed shortly when results are filed at Companies House and was part of the appeal to its new owners. Phoenix Equity has secured leases on sheds next to the hub at Fradley Park, Lichfield, which will ensure that there is plenty of room for rapid expansion over the next three years. By contrast, Wilson questions the ability of some competitors to expand much further without substantial investment. Several UK hubs are approaching physical limits to what can be done, Wilson says – he has driven to all of them. Wilson, who spent two decades working for TNT in the UK and Europe, believes Palletways can lead the restructuring of the freight market, in the same way as TNT in the 1980s transformed the UK (and then European) parcels market. Palletways will make sending freight as easy as sending a document or a parcel. Consignment sizes will fall; there will be a wider range of products, which are more cost-effective for customers and make customers more competitive. Palletways can become the dominant brand in the UK and across Europe for less-than-full-load palletised freight. “We have a keen investor, keen management and we can take any route we want,” he says, adding: “The biggest market is neither post, nor parcels – it is freight.”
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