TDG's gang of five
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• Transport Development Group Cairngorm has put the combined resources of five of its member companies into a three-year "Pathfinder" transport contract with Seagram Distillers in a deal worth 25 million.
Under the contract TDG Cairngorm companies Connal Highland, Inter-City Transport, McPherson's Transport, Thomas Smith Jnr and Swift Autos have taken over all major bulk transport operations for Seagram Distillers' Glasgow-based whisky bottlers Chivas Brothers.
Connal Highland and InterCity will carry out most of the work and will provide up to 20 artic units a day for Chivas.
The work will include tanker movements between Chivas' site at Dalmuir and its Paisley bottling plant, as well as carrying casks from Balgrey into Dalmuir. Bottled whiskey — mainly in container loads — will also be carried on from Paisley.
Both Connal Highland and Inter-City are investing in new vehicles and each company has also taken on a number of the vehicles previously operated by Chivas.
TDG Cairngorm chief executive Duncan Martin says the contract is the "very first dedicated transport arrangement using a consortium of TDG companies. Their combined strength will give Chivas greater flexibility and speed".
Martin reports that TDG Cairngorm decided to combine its five operating companies because a single operator was not capable of handling the contract on its own. Connal Highland and Inter-City will provide the core vehicles for all Chivas needs and will bring in extra trucks from the remaining three member companies when transport demands are unusually high.
TDG Cairngorm won the Chivas Brothers contract in the face of stiff competition from National Freight Consortium, United Transport and a number of large local hauliers.
According to Malcolm Jones, Seagram Distillers' director of purchasing and packaging, the switch to a contract transport will significantly reduce Chivas Brothers' overall costs: "Transport is not our mainstream activity," he says.
"We tried very bard with a small fleet, but costs were always too high and always would have been."
Jones says that Chivas Brothers is carrying out a similar contract transport exercise at its Edinburgh bottling plant which could result in a further 21.5-million deal with TDG Cairngorm.