NFC to spend £80m but not in the UK
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• NFC has £80m available for acquisitions this year — but it does not expect to spend any of the money in the UK.
Chief executive Jack Mather is planning to buy small operations in the US and mainland Europe to fill gaps in the group's logistics operation. Specific targets are the west coast of America, France and Germany.
Mather says that NFC's policy is to buy small companies from which NFC can develop a larger operation; "We need flags in the map — you can't greenfield into Germany," he says, "you need to be able to show customers a coldstore or a depot."
He believes that buying small reduces risk: "If a big acquisition goes wrong it can hurt you — we would rather nibble than take a bite." NFC spent £9m on redundancies in 1991 and Mather expects more job cuts in the UK: "We will have a significant redundancy bill this year, unless the economy picks up."
NFC has recently met Trade Secretary Peter Lilley and shadow Transport Secretary John Prescott, but Mather now believes that NFC will be better served by lobbying Europe: "The transport industry should forget Westminster and concentrate on Brussels."
Mather thinks that the impending 56mph (80km/h) limit for trucks is a "bloody nonsense — you could let lorries do 70mph on a motorway on Sunday mornings, but 56mph may sometimes be too fast — it all depends on the road, the time and the conditions."