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CUM RIA CALLING

25th August 1994, Page 30
25th August 1994
Page 30
Page 31
Page 30, 25th August 1994 — CUM RIA CALLING
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

If Wordsworth wandered lonely as a cloud today he would encounter few trucks in the Lake District national park as a special permit is required to disturb this tourist haven. Hauliers heading south have to go the long way round. However, Cumbria deserves to be as famous for its industry, centred in Barrow and Carlisle, as it is for its beauty spots. The region is home to Vickers, Metal Box, British Steel, Albright & Wilson, British Nuclear Fuels, open cast coal mining, limestone

quarrying and extensive manufacturing of paper and board products.

It was once more 11114,_ prosperous,

boasting 40 *coal mines and a much more extensive steel and quarrying industry than today, supplying limestone to the now defunct Ravenscraig steel works in Scotland. Yet when Cumbria Marketing Initiative surveyed industrialists outside the county it found that 50% didn't know where Cumbria was and couldn't name a single industry. So where does that leave the region's hauliers? We packed our best weatherproofs and spent a few days finding out.

Agood Irish story is hard to beat and it is said that during the high-flying business climate of the mid-eighties Guinness woke up one morning startled to find it had accidentally bought a haulage company, complete with 150 trucks.

The inadvertent purchase came about during Guinness' ill-fated pursuit of Distillers, which ended up with chairman Ernest Saunders going to jail. The Distillers portfolio included United Glass which happened to own a haulage company called Robsons, once proudly known as Robson's Border Transport.

Guinness, wanting no part of the haulage business, quickly sold Robsons to Bunzl, which slotted the distribution company into its subsidiary United Carriers Logistics, part of the United Carriers Group. If that wasn't confusing enough worse was to follow Bunzl ran into difficulties and United Carriers successfully staged a management buy-out. However, it decided it did not want Robsons either and sold UC Logistics to NYK Shipping of Japan in 1991. Several managements and liveries later Robsons is hoping for a period of stability.

"We still have UCL on the vehicle sides but we have nothing to do with United Carriers anymore," says Peter Ransley, Robsons' regional manager north (above right), who has survived more than 30 years with the company, including the turbulent eighties when he must have felt like a ping-pong ball as the company batted from one owner to another.

Ransley says NYK has made few changes, allowing the UK management to get on with the job of running the company: They visit us two or three times a year for a progress report." However, the company now handles a lot of container work for its Japanese parent which vetos trunking: The man who picks the container up must also deliver."

Ransley sees some slight improvement in the business climate: "Things are busier but rates are still depressed." The company has halved its workforce since 1989 from 677 employees to just over 350. The fleet has been cut from 200 to 130. Despite a smaller fleet and subsequent reduction in overheads turnover has only dropped from £22m to £19tm "We've had to get really lean; now we are much more efficient."

The day we arrived Ransley was in the process of interviewing fork-lift drivers for a major new five-year contract with local tyremaker Pirelli, which will call for storage and delivery of raw materials for 60 different types of tyres. Deliveries will be required daily on a three-shift basis when the contract begins next week.

Ransley believes Robsons won the contract because of its commitment since 1992 to 1355750 which matched Pirelli's own quality procedures. He recalls with wry amusement the bad old days when he was warehouse manager: "The foreman used to find products by walking round with the paperwork in his pocket—ah yes, there it is!"

Robsons biggest contract remains Iggesund Paperboard which manufactures in Cuiribria and is still a big user of flats, requiring Robsons to have men skilled in roping and sheeting. Ransley says lie sees himself as an extension of the customer,

By illustration he recalls how Iggesund phoned him at Easter desperate to bring in 220 tonnes of pulp from Aberdeen to prevent its mill grinding to a halt. Ransley persuaded nine drivers to give up their Easter break to meet the ship. When they got to Aberdeen the boat was still struggling up the north sea. They waited and Iggesund got its pulp on time: You can get cheaper haulage," says Ransley, "but will you get what you want?" 110


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