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148 
Wincanton woos BTAC
Page 17
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• Wincanton aims to follow TNT and NCCS into brewery distribution. The Somersetbased carrier told brewery bosses at last week's Brewery Transport Advisory Committee conference that it could run their distribution operations cheaper if they were contracted out.
Wincanton is stressing its expertise in tanker distribution for bulk deliveries, but commercial manager Martin Ashby says it could run an entire operation, taking over an existing in-house fleet and drivers. Wincanton already handles bulk beer and spirit movements to bottling plants for several brewing groups.
"The brewery industry is actively looking at its costs, structure and the way it operates," says Ashby. "There is a clear move away from running transport fleets and towards core brewing activities."
Although it claims to be talking to "every brewery in the country", sources in BTAC say that several regionals are on the verge of contracting out their transport and Wincanton could be targeting those. TNT already handles Boddington's distribution, and NFC has taken over operations for Wolverhampton & Dudley and Whitbread. This month Tibbett & Britten took on Whitbread's take-home distribution.
Wincanton was the only carrier to make a pitch at BTAC. It claimed that breweries which continued to run inefficient inhouse operations had money to burn. It illustrated its point by setting light to a wad of imitation ten pound notes on stage.
Ashby says that while the company has no brewery distribution stock of its own, it could take over an operation "tomorrow" simply by buying out a customer's fleet.
So far, outside carriers have to cut the costs of an in-house brewery distribution operation by reducing staff, often by ending the practice of three employees a vehicle. Some brewery managers claim that thirdparty carriers also make savings by reducing driver and drayman wages.