Turners wins unified British Sugar work
Page 10
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• by Guy Sheppard British Sugar is handing over all its bulk sugar deliveries to a single contractor but has shied away from reorganising sugar beet deliveries following a long-running row with growers.
Turners (Soham) will recruit 35 extra drivers and expand its fleet by 35 tractive units after winning the bulk sugar contract which is worth nearly £24m over three years.
Mark Wilson, British Sugar logistics manager, says that for the past three years, the work has been split between Turners and Exel Tankfreight. "Sometimes, one was quiet and the other was busy," he adds. Now that there's one haulier, those sorts of situations will be dealt with much more efficiently and sensibly. It was tough on Exel; they had also looked after us very well."
The decision not to reorganise beet distribu tion ends months of uncertainty for hundreds of hauliers who deliver to British Sugar's nine processing factories.
The National Farmers' Union, which represents growers, was strongly opposed to handing over the responsibility to British Sugar, which currently pays a transport allowance of £20m a year to 9,000 farmers for handling the work. At one point, the row was expected to go to arbitration.
Wilson says: "We believed we could do it more cost-effectively than the farmers but they did not want to go down that path."
British Sugar is the second blue chip contract to be won by Turners this year, In January, it was awarded a contract worth £45m over three years by cement manufacturer Blue Circle Industries.