Merger of Containerway and Roadferry
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AWHOLLY-OWNED subsidiary of the Transport Holding Company, to be known as Containerway and Roadferry Ltd., commences operation on April I. This merger of AngloContinental Container Services and British Road Ferry Services will create the largest through freight company in Europe, with a combined fleet of some 4,000 containers, TIR tilt trailers and Lancashire flats.
Announcing this at a Press conference on Wednesday, Mr. J. G. Woollan, chairman of the new company, said the capital involved was in the region of £4m. The merger would effect certain economies in administration but the staff was expected to increase by one third in the next five years, and he hoped traffic would increase by at least 50 per cent in this period. Mr. Woollan affirmed his belief that the trend of international freight movements favoured the use of lift-on/lift-off techniques rather than the roll-on/roll-off method.
Containerway and Roadferry Ltd. will exploit the considerable experience accumulated in recent years in the handling of unit-load traffic. The ACCS (Containerway) service pioneered a container service between this country and Northern Ireland in 1949 using purpose-built container vessels. BRFS Ltd. under the "Roadferry" trading name energetically developed a Con
tinental freight service utilizing roll-on/roll-off services.
The express air parcel container service between London and Belfast launched by Containerway in January 1966 and since extended to cover the south and south-west of England is to be developed to cover the whole of England, Scotland and Wales.
Containerway and Roadferry Ltd. will now be the UK members of the Continental partnership concluded earlier this month between BRFS Ltd., International Transportation Holland (a subsidiary of Van Gend en Loos) and Interferry (a subsidiary of Societe Belgo Anglaise des Ferryboats SA) to handle Continental unit load traffic.
Control and development of the company's unit-load service between the UK and Sweden will be in partnership with Aktiebolaget Svenske Godscentraler—ASG—the largest transport organization in Sweden, with whom BRFS have collaborated since 1965. Services to Denmark are operated in conjunction with Paul Lehmann International Transporters of Copenhagen.
In Northern Ireland, Lawther and Harvey Ltd., agents of ACCS for 19 years, will provide all necessary commercial facilities for Containerway and Roadferry Ltd. The partnership between Coras Iompair Eireann and Ferry Trailers Ltd., trading as Irish Ferryways, will handle unit-load services between Britain and Eire, with Containerway and Roadferry Ltd. providing supporting commercial and operational facilities.
Containerway and Roadferry Ltd. are building new depots at Barking, Newport, Birmingham and Glasgow equipped with heavy cranage, groupage facilities, service stations, equipment assembly areas and administrative offices. The centralized equipment control systems will be linked to operating branches and shipping terminals with teleprinter-telex services. The company intend to widen their air freight operations, while deep-sea container services, particularly between the UK and the United States are being actively explored.
The board of the new company with Mr. J. G. Woollan as chairman will be Mr. R. G. Davies, managing director; Mr. J. H. Bennison, finance director; Mr. G. D. Bickmore, commercial director and Mr. W. N. Cherry, Mr. H. W. Elliott and Mr. R. Campbell.
Brent HQ: The head office of the Brent Group of Companies Ltd. has been moved to Brent House, 214 Kenton Road, Kenton, Harrow. Middx. (tel: 01-907 01111. This address is for central accounts, legal, insurance, and property departments and the board of directors; the trading addresses of subsidiaries and branches remain unchanged.
Federated Office: Federated Road Transport Services Ltd. is now operating from a new Norwich office at 30/31 Harford Market, Hall Road, Norwich, NOR 74C; telephone Norwich 52586/7. They are operating regular services to the Midlands, Lancashire and London Areas. Their man on the spot is Mr. Fred Blythe.
Midland Link: Work starts soon on a further 21-mile section of M6 between Darlaston and Ray Hail, Staffordshire, third stage of the southern extension of M6 from Dunston, near Stafford. The extension will form the Midland Link Motorways, expected to be ready in 1971.