Royal boost for first year of Nightline's UK parcel operations

Nightline, one of Ireland’s biggest independent parcel carriers, has enjoyed a good first year for its UK operations. The company said this week it is on track to achieving a 60,000 volume of parcel shipments to Ireland, after the first 12 months after establishing an office in Lancashire.

It said the “very significant volumes” it is seeing safely across the Irish sea have been partly boosted by this year’s official visit by Her Majesty the Queen.

Geremy Ruffin, UK managing director for Nightline, said in the three weeks following the historic Royal visit in May, actual shipments increased 23% while sales enquiries shot up by 70%.

He said: “Our first year in Lancashire has exceeded our expectations. We obviously did a great amount of preparation before we started business to gauge the potential, but even we have been surprised by the number of companies looking for an efficient, specialist alternative carrier to handle their Irish shipments.”

NIghtline has sealed a string of contract wins since opening its office in Altham, Lancashire, last summer. Contract wins have included the retail group Aurora, which includes fashion chains Coast, Oasis and Warehouse.

The company has also been shipping items for Findel Education, the UK’s biggest educational supplies firm, and “considerable volumes” of agricultural engineering exports.

“We are well on the way to achieving our target of moving 60,000 parcels a week to Ireland,” said Ruffin, “something which we feel fully justifies our decision to set up the UK office.”

Nightline, which has its head office in Dublin, announced plans last month to treble its operations in Belfast. It also now has plans for a EUR 5m expansion of its headquarters to cope with rising parcel volumes.

The company states that it now handles one in four of all parcels on Irish roads, through its seven facilities in Dublin, Sligo, Waterford, Cork, Limerick and Galway.