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UTD a new national force

1st December 1984
Page 22
Page 22, 1st December 1984 — UTD a new national force
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THE purchase of SPD by the National Freight consortium has not been the only significant change in the third party distribution business in the past couple of months. While SPD and NEC were talking money, two BET companies, Murphy Distribution and Smith of Maddiston, were practising their new name. In October these two companies merged to form United Transport Distribution.

Very shortly afterwards, in mid-November, it opened a new, purpose-built distribution centre at South Kirkby, near Wakefield (see CM, November 24), the first tangible evidence that United Transport Distribution looks set on becoming a national force rather than just two regional companies working with one another.

The Scottish Smith of Maddiston company and the Mid-, lands-based Murphy Group were both bought by United Transport in 1968. Alongside them in the United Transport stable are some well-known names such as Bulwark United Transport, Stamp, Sunter Bros, Wynns Heavy 14aulage and Seawheel. On the international side is a whole collection of road and freight passenger services, predominantly in Africa.

Moving up the hierarchy, United Transport is itself the transport division of BET (British Electric Traction). In the other divisions of this serviceorientated conglomerate are nationally known subsidiaries like Rediffusion, Thames Television, Wembley Stadium, Slimming Magazine, Biffa, Advance Services....

BET pre-tax profits for the year ended March 31, 1984, totalled £85.7m and transport was the biggest single earner, contributing £25.6m.

So there should be no doubt that United Transport Distribution has the backing to become a serious challenger for third party distribution business.

The company hopes that the merger will encourage those clients who previously used Murphy or Smith in the Midlands or Scotland now to regard the company as a national delivery service and channel more business through the company.

Murphy Distribution brought with it clients in the Midlands such as Quaker Oats, Carnation, British Alcan and General Foods. For its part, Smith of Maddiston's clients in Scotland included British Alcan (again), Spillers and British Tissue. Smith also operates a dedicated delivery service for Boots.

Quaker Oats and British Alcan are the first two of these existing customers to react to the merger and have both put their goods into the new South Kirkby distribution centre. South Kirkby was built on the strength of winning Quaker Oats' northern distribution contract, with United Transport Distribution taking the traffic away from other carriers in the area.

United Transport Distribution managing director Gerald Pickering told CM that he is looking for another two or three medium-sized clients in the grocery industry to fill South Kirkby's capacity. The 5,574sqm (60,000sqft) warehouse with 13 loading banks is a little over half full at the moment.

Glasgow, South Kirkby and Wolverhampton give a fair coverage of Scotland, the North and the Midlands, but leave a big gap in the South East and West if United Transport Distribution wants to offer national coverage. Gerald Pickering said that the South East would be covered by a depot on the Hertfordshire/Essex border — one has already been acquired and is undergoing modification in time for an opening next spring. And as for the coverage in the South West he said that "negotiations are at an advanced stage" for a depot in the Bristol area which will open later in 1985.

This would give a five-depot network. Is that sufficient for nationwide distribution? "It's what our customers want," replied Mr Pickering, emphasising that the trend was moving in this direction and away from the 15 to 25 depot networks operated by some other distribution companies. In 1980 Quaker Oats used 14 depots for its UK distribution — now it is down to five. In fairness, the average United Transport Distribution delivery round usually has eight or nine drops, less than some other carriers' multi-drop rounds.

While the merger was an obvious step towards giving the new United Transport Distribution the strength to tender for national accounts, Mr Pickering wants the best of both worlds: "We do not want to appear too big or too national. We want to keep regional responsibility."

Gerald Pickering came to United Transport Distribution from the Leicester-based Murphy Transport Services, an engineering and bodybuilding business within the Murphy Group. This company is now building the bodies for the new fleet which currently numbers 80 tractive units, 300 trailers and 120 rigid distribution vehicles.

Two notable features of the distribution fleet are the use of demountable bodies and the adoption of drawbars for trunking. The rigids are Seddon Atkinson 201 16-tonners equipped with Ray Smith's guide rail demount system and their Murphy-built bodies are 7.3m (24ft) long with either curtain sides or sliding doors. The four drawbars currently on the road use Seddon Atkinson 301 chassis.

Gerald Pickering also gave some clues to other possible areas for new business for his young company. He said that interest was being shown by European grocery manufacturers wanting to establish a distribution system for their UK market. He also recognised a demand for dedicated distribution such as that done for Boots and he said that it was quite possible for more of this type of work to be done through the new depots.

Finally, possible expansion into the chilled food distribution market was mentioned, although the company has no temperature-controlled warehousing at present.


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