Alan Firmin sets sail for ‘murky world’ of containers
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By Christopher Walton KENT HAULIER Alan Firmin is branching into the container market and has appointed former Les Knight Transport MD Peter Knight to handle its new line of business.
Filling the gap in the market vacated by the collapse of Dodd’s Group at the end of August, the Snodland-based irm has hired in a leet of trucks and skellies alongside 10 former drivers from Dodd’s – which bought Les Knight in October 2008.
The move has not seen any former Dodd’s staff enter a TUPE transfer, nor has Firmin acquired assets from Dodd’s administrators MCR, or taken on any of its former contracts.
Firmin director Paul Denyer tells CM: “We have branched out into the murky world of containers and to facilitate that we have taken on
Peter Knight alongside a couple of other employees.” The new business will focus on container deliveries into Purleet and Tilbury in Essex.
The Palletforce member has also conirmed it is now handling the ME postcode for the network, formally part of Dodd’s business.
CM reported (8 September) in the wake of Dodd’s collapse that Palletforce had put a contingency plan in place to handle deliveries in Kent following a change in ownership at Dodd’s earlier this year.
Dodd’s parent company 21st Century Logistics was bought by Swedish businessman Fredrik Helander on 21 April, but it entered administration on 26 August.
Shefield-based haulier Talstaff has now taken over the former Dodd’s group depot in South Yorkshire, alongside 10 of the 17 former staff employed at the site.