Panic Link set to aid miners
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by Steve McQueen
• Franchised parcels operator Panic Link is set to create nearly 500 jobs at its Launt hub in Nottingham, with the help of British Coal and the Department of Trade and Industry, for miners likely to be made redundant. It already employs 150 ex-miners.
About 160 new drivers will be needed to drive 80 extra vehicles on double shifts, if a planned £10 million investment in a new just-in-time warehouse can be brought forward by two years.
"We hope to raise 25% of the funds for the project from the DTI, 25% in preferential loans from British Coal and we will provide the rest," says Panic Link chairman Eric Norman.
Norman says British Coal responded positively to his proposals at a meeting last week. A meeting with the president of the Board of Trade, Michael Heseltine, is being arranged.
The Panic Link hub currently handles 360 vehicle movements a day.
Administrative staff and warehouse personnel will take the total number of new jobs to 483.
The company has 120 depots countrywide and an annual turnover of around £24m. Norman says the moratorium placed on the pit closures would give time to organise the project, which could be operating by June.