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Curries: a favourite Order for the big boys

MFRIES is not an easy town get to. It is about 340 miles m London, 60 miles from isgow and 29 miles from Care and is tucked away just ine the Scottish border.

-ravel from Kent to Dumfries rail as I did and you will need leave home at around 5am in ler to arrive at Dumfries raily station by 120pnn. Do the irney by road at a modest 3rage speed of 50mph and the :rney time is less, I am told. kfter eight hours I was won-ing whether the single track 3 that I was travelling along s ever actually going to get to mfries. Yet as I glanced' out

window I spotted an artic arting the distinctive Curries Dumfries livery and I knew it I was quite literally on the ht track.

....'urries is a relatively new -npany (or, rather group of -npanies) which got off the )und in the early part of the venties. Norman Currie med Curries (Fuels) in 1972, tially selling fuel in the Southst of Scotland with the aid of 9w tankers.

\ year later Curries Transport Jmfries) was' formed and by 74 Currie and Johnstone (Eutransport) was established. e formation of Curries Forirding (Dumfries) in 1980 corn:ted the picture.

DI these four companies, the and overseas haulage operans are the most lucrative, ording to director Jack Henrson. It was the UK company, rries Transport, that Jack and rst talked about.

fhe company thrives on a few ijor contracts from giants like iiroyal and Express Dairies, al)ugh as Jack says, the smaller stomers play an all-important e too.

The majority of our work mes from Uniroyal, which produces Tredair matting, underlay etc. Its factory at Dumfries operates on a 24-hour basis and is split between two hauliers. We operate the night shift for them and move about six loads for them every night.

"They mainly go to distribution centres throughout the UK rather than direct to clients. They go in as full loads and are distributed by other companies from there."

About 13 tractive units and 36 trailers (boxes and Tautliners) work exclusively for Curries on domestic work, They are based at Heathall Industrial Estate, Dumfries which is also the home of the company's 55,000sqft warehouse. The warehouse stores goods for Fisons, ICI Plastics Division, Stelrad Radiators and others. Around 15,000sqft of the warehouse is also let out to West Cumberland Farmers.

The Curries overseas company (Currie and Johnstone (Eurotransport1) operates two miles from Heathall at Dargavel Stores, although Jack Henderson says that plans are underway to move the continental operation to the Heathall Estate so that "the right hand will know exactly what the left is doing."

Currie and Johnstone (Eurotransport) runs 17 tractive units and 35 trailers between the UK and the Continent. Most of the 40ft trailers are boxes and all are fitted with air suspension which, says Jack, is all important when carrying equipment for clients like Digital Equipment (Scotland) of Aire which manufactures computers.

The Curries overseas operation also hauls for the ICI Petro Plastics Division at Dumfries, which produces X-ray, video and packing film, etc. A bonus for Curries is that ICI has just announced a £35m expansion at Dumfries.

"I only hope that we're still around when the expansion comes," says Jack.

Curries' other major customer is National Cash Register at Dundee which provides work via Meadows Freight. Meadows has the contract with NCR, Curries are simply sub-contracted in by Meadows. For its major clients (Digital Equipment, ICI and NCR) and others Curries operates on a regular basis to Belgium, Holland France, West Germany and Switzerland and to a lesser extent runs to Italy, Spain, Denmark, and Yugoslavia. There are hopes that the company might also be running to Scandinavia in the near future.

Jack says that his company has a good allocation of international permits, and volume-wise is probably in the top ten in Britain. The reason for its high number of permits is simple: Curries acquired a company and had its permits transferred through the proper channels. Had that acquisition not been possible, Jack admits that it would have been near impos sible to break into the conti tal market with such devasta effect.

Interestingly, Currie's UK c pany, which is run tot. separate from the European up, occasionally runs to Eur too and has its own, sepa allocation of internatic permits.

"We have four EEC books tween us, with a generous cation of permits for Germ France and Italy." says J "We have a poor allocatior Spain but we are trying amend that."

Curries also has interest Germany. Based at Dusselc Currie and Getrans has Cur {Fuels) as a 90 per cent sh holder. The company has one vehicle — a DAF 2800.

Currie and Getrans was se three and a half years ago two reasons. The cornpi helped out with back-loads b also enabled Curries to incrE its quota of permits under co-operative quota system.

"At that time it was two one. Now it's one for one. that's a helpful additio supplement for the permits have in our own right."

Jack Henderson says that Currie continental opera mainly uses the ports of F stowe, Hull and Dover.

"We're leaning more tow Felixstowe which, for our r ers, is almost a working from here. Getting space ships from Felixstowe can I problem, though, and tho we've never actually b turned away we always nee book our sailings in advance.

Although Curries drivers reach London in an eight working day, Dover is just to away and is, consequently, L less frequently than in the pa "The eight-hour day killer: as far as Dover's concert That's partly why we switche other ports like Felixstowe Hull."

Currie and Johnstone (El transport)is seemingly thri\ on the international scene w other companies claim that c tinental haulage presents Iwork, a lot of risks and rewards. How has Curries b

uccessful at a time when -s were going to the wall? urries expanded Europeanbecause Digital Equipment nded. The recession did hit ut as far as volume is con?d they've evened out."

e real reason, though, for es' success on the Contiand in the UK is due to the of service it provides its ts. Jack says that the aim is ys to provide an excellent ce that is both reliable and a r.

admits that the Uniroyal 'act was lost by the corn''s UK arm last year, but was back in April this year after )yal had experimented with Iternative haulier. The fact Curries was re-recruited such a short period of time ks for itself, I think.

cked away just inside the ;tish border, the Curries p of companies is just 12 from the A74 says Jack. I the impression that he is • satisfied with the local network but that further a he is far from happy.

s far as I'm concerned Lons the biggest bottleneck in pe. And the M25 is too far from the centre to be really tive. To be really worthwit needed to follow the line ay, the north and south cir • roads."

ck Henderson's dissatisfacwith London's roads might prompted the deal his UK ation has with companies

vv: Another of the Scania's in 'e's fleet.

like Fruit Freight (London) Freightline Bristol, and Duncans For Service (London). Most if not all of Curries UK's loads for London and the south go down on a changeover basis.

'We swap trailers at Charnock Richard. We take those companies' loads back north while they take ours down south."

On the rare occasions that Curries UK vehicles do need to go into London, deliveries are usually in the daytime, and therefore, the Greater London Council's proposed night time/weekend ban on goods vehicles would not effect Curries greatly.

When running to Dover, Curries' continental vehicles could obviously feel the brunt of a GLC ban, although the M25 would be the obvious answer if and when the GLC gets its way.

Interestingly, it is currently up to Curries' drivers whether or not they .go through London or pick up the M25 and use the Dartford Tunnel when running to Dover.

From what I saw on my brief visit to Curries its distinctive yellow and red fleet of tractive units and trailers is immaculate. The majority of the vehicles are Scanias, the UK operation running four 111s, three 112s in addition to three Leyland Roadtrains, a Ford Transcontinental, one Volvo six-wheel rigid and a Leyland Terrier. Currie and Johnstone runs eight 111s and seven 112s. There are also two Volvo PhDs in the continental fleet.

"The Scanias are reliable, and repair and maintenance wise they're as good as anything to work on. The breakdown service is excellent.

"I should also mention, though, that the Volvos have been pretty well trouble free too.

"The three Roadtrains have also been fine so far but it's unlikely we'll switch completely to Leyland."

Jack says that two of the Scania 112s run at 38 tons on continental work.

"It's early days yet and though demand for them has so far not been tremendous we do have a third 38-tonner that's just been delivered."

Currie and Johnstone finds maximum weight vehicles most useful when running back from rather than to the Continent. It is conceivable that a vehicle might move out a load of comparatively light computers (with a payload of only seven tons, perhaps) and return at 38 tons gross with steel castings or fruit.

As Jack Henderson and I walked through the reception area at Dargavel Stores before my journey back down south, he again emphasised that the Currie group of companies survives and succeeds by offering its clients a high level of service that is professional and reliable.

Just as we left the premises we met a man who echoed Jack's sentiments. The man modestly introduced himself as "just an oil salesman". I learned later that he was Norman Currie!