Palletways snaps up former member’s assets
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By Chris Druce
PALLETWAYS HAS bought the assets of long-term member Oxford Logistics (Milton) after the haulier was placed into voluntary liquidation last month.
The Abingdon-based irm, set up in 1995 by MD Terry Field, has been part of the Palletways network, covering postcodes in the Oxford, Swindon and Harpenden areas, since 2001.
However, it was placed into voluntary liquidation on 20 December unable to continue as a going concern, with business advisers Shipleys appointed to handle the process.
According to its statement of affairs published at Companies House, it has a deiciency of £547,240. It owes Palletways £245,059.
A spokesman for Shipleys says the loss of two major contracts in July and October 2011, worth £1.1m in combined turnover, proved the inal straw.
The haulier, which holds an O-licence for 18 vehicles and 14 trailers, will now operate as Pallet ways Oxford, joining the group’s centrally owned Birmingham, Edinburgh and London depots, within the 100-member plus UK network. Palletways chief executive James Wilson tells CM: “We’ve known Oxford Logistics for many years. We have supported it inancially for the last couple of years but realised it was not going to come out of it. The problem was the other potential members [in the area] were signed up by other networks and we didn’t feel that we could get the quality we were looking for. [Therefore we] decided it was an opportunity.” The deal safeguards 16 jobs, including Field and the other members of the management team.
Palletways has also opened a centrally owned depot in London’s Dartford to complement its existing Greenford base to the west, in a bid to create an “international gateway” for deliveries to France and Holland.