FRUIT-TO-TOYS GEEST FINDS BIG BUSINESS IN SMALL CONTAINERS
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THE privately-owned firm of Geest Industries has entered the container business in a big way. Geest is operating a daily container service across the North Sea bringing fruit and vegetables from the Continent and returning with a variety of general cargo including crockery, toys, sweets, and chemicals.
The containers used are only 8 ft. by 8 ft., but the company has found them to be most acceptable to hundreds of small exporters in this country. Three specially converted Geest-owned ships are used on the North Sea run between Ipswich and Rotterdam.
A fleet of 32 Scarnme11 Challenger T and 12 Scammell FW 13/14 trailers operate on the road feeder service between Ipswich docks and the exporters' premises, carrying up to four containers at a time. Delivery time from any point in Great Britain to towns within a 250-mile radius of Rotterdam has been cut to 36 hours.
The Geest Line is experimenting with containerizing its banana shipments from the Windward Islands.
"Containers have done all that we expected of them. They ensure a faster overall service, quicker turnround for our ships, and better produce because the individual packages are not handled between Continental packing stations and arrival at our branch distribution centres," says Mr. Alec Bothanlley, general manager of Geest produce division.
Sales have leapt 50 per cent in the past two years, and with the introduction of containers, Geest's future looks, to say the least, promising.