P&O buys three out of four GB Express units
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by Sally Nash and Miles I3rignall • The race to snap up collapsed transport firm GB Express has been won by P&O Ferrymasters which has bought 75% of the business.
Joint receiver Richard Hill from accountancy firm KPMG says P&O has taken on three out of the four business units— forwarding, groupage and rail. It rejected the unprofitable full trailer load business, which was blamed for GB's collapse.
The new company will be called P&O GB.
P&O Fen-ymasters' chairman Charles Rice says the 300 staff from the groupage, rail and GB Express Northern operations (about half GB's workforce) have now transferred to P&O.
Rice describes GB's Bournemouth-based business as "a good fit" in terms of geographical coverage and client base. P&O is particularly keen on GB's intermodal divisions as this is an area it has been hoping to expand into, he says.
The operational directors, including Jeff Duval who built GB, stay with the company— GB's chief executive David Moffatt does not.
No one is saying how much P&O paid the receivers, but it is understood that the sum should cover the debts, so all the subcontractors who worked for GB before it called in KPMG are likely be paid.
Rice says he does not foresee any future job losses among the 300 workers taken on from GB.