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Swains retreats from three days
Page 15
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• International haulier Swains of Stretton is pulling out of three-day distribution in the face of fierce competition from parcel giants such as TNT and Parceline.
The company has just bought an ERF dealership in Shropshire, which it is planning to expand, and it is selling its Telford depot along with more than half its fleet.
Over a third of the staff involved in the distribution operation have been made redundant: the remaining 15 have been transferred to other areas in the company.
Swains' managing director Glyn Swains says the distribution operation, which was set up in 1983, was successful until quite recently: "We could not compete with companies such as TNT which were expanding into our area of two or threeday deliveries.
Our margins were being pushed to the limit and we were also having problems recruiting drivers."
With the disposal of the Telford site, Swains will run in the south Midlands, south Wales and the South East from its Bristol depot.
The premises of the ERF dealer, Blower Brothers, near Shrewsbury, will also be used for some haulage operations.
In line with its ERF dealership, Swains is to replace 65 of its vehicles with ERFs.
Swains now has depots in Shrewsbury and Bristol and an office in France. It also has shares in a freight forwarding firm which has sites in Dover, Heathrow, Birmingham, Manchester and Swanley.