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Wincanton acquires home delivery firm
Page 6
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The purchase of Bristol-based Lane Group should enable Wincanton to offer "supply chain capability in all areas". Dominic Perry reports.
LOGISTICS GIANT Wincanton is back on the acquisition trail with the purchase of home delivery specialist Lane Group.
The Portbury, Bristol-based firm was snapped up by Wincanton after an initial approach eight weeks ago. Wincanton secs Lane Group's core market the two-man home-delivery sector as ripe for expansion; it expects it to grow by up to 25% in the next two years.
The purchase will enable Wincanton to offer its customers a single logistics provider for the whole supply-chain operation.
Martin Taylor. MD retail at Wincanton, says: "These days you have to be able to offer your customers supplychain capability in al I areas."
Although Lane Group has built a solid reputation for service, it has recently struggled financially. In 2004 it was forced re-evaluate its property portfolio, including the sale and lease back of its Portbury HQ.
Former MD Rebecca Jenkins says:"It was a challenging time, hut we came through. It's a great credit to everybody at Lane Group that we've been acquired by a company as good as Wincanton."
She says Lane Group could have continued as a private business but accepts that growth would have been slower: "You have to evaluate the opportunities out there and it would have been irresponsible in my position not to consider the security they would bring for [Lane's] employees."
Jenkins will stay on at Wincanton as business development director.
Lane runs 370 vehicles and employees 770 people on 15 sites. Taylor says there will be no redundancies and predicts expansion of the division.