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For a medium-sized, family-run distribution business to walk away from

9th July 1998, Page 42
9th July 1998
Page 42
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Page 42, 9th July 1998 — For a medium-sized, family-run distribution business to walk away from
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

a contract offered by a company the size of Birds Eye Wall's took some courage. But any fears of foolhardiness on the part of King Bros were misplaced.

FACTFILE: KING BROS BASED: Orton Waterville, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire. ESTABLISHED: 1913. CONTAC Peter King, managing director. Fl Fr 1 1strong, almost all Leyland Daf 7.5tonners with refrigerated bodies.

SPECIAUTY Distributing ice-cream and temperature-controlled catering products. Adeck-chair, a knotted hankie on your head and a choc ice melting all over your T-shirt as the kids bury granny up to her neck in the sand. Of such delights are British seaside holidays made.

The odds are that your ice-cream will have come in a Wall's wrapper. In the UK, the brand is to ice-cream what Biro is to ball-point pens, so it would be a brave distributor to part company with such a successful organisation; but that is exactly what Peter King has done.

The managing director of family-owned King Bros used to be one of about 30 dedicated distributors. But earlier this year he was unhappy with new contract conditions offered by Birds Eye Wall's.

"The commercial viability of the new terms did not suit us, and they were not negotiable, so we decided that we wouldn't carry on being exclusively Wall's," he said from King Bros' offices at Orton Waterville, Peterborough.

The company still wholesales some Wall's products, including comets and lollies, and can offer retailers the terms they enjoyed in the past. But now competitors' products have been brought into the fold. "We were greatly encouraged by the number of suppliers who came forward with their ranges," King says.

These include Mars, which King describes as having gone "from strength to strength in this market", Nestle, Treats and Muller, which is launching a range of ice-creams in the UK. None of these brands has dedicated distributors in the way that Birds Eye Wall's does, says King.

Wall's does not welcome other products being sold from the freezers it supplies to shops—"they're its property, after all". King points out—but many retailers have their own refrigeration.

King Bros' decision to opt out of its exclusivity deal came as the Monopolies and Mergers Commission was investigating Birds Eye Wall's ice-cream distribution practices, an inquiry that was continuing as Commercial Motor went to press. The frozen food giant has set

up another distributorship in Cambridgeshire, says King, but his customers have proved loyal.

"They've been very supportive, and the majority have stayed with us," he says. "They like being able to offer the public more choice."

The change is by no means the biggest one in the firm's 85-year history. "We started out as farmers. Then, just after the Second World War, part of the farm was dedicated to poultry rearing," King reports. "That activity grew and we started supplying leading hotels, both locally and in London, with chickens, ducks and turkeys."

By the late fifties the company was freezing poultry, and its customers were asking for additional products. We started wholesaling and distributing vegetables, then fish," says King, "and our portfolio grew and grew."

In 1985 King Bros became a Wall's distributor, a move that proved much more successful than the firm had expected. Poultry process ing has long been abandoned, and the company now concentrates on ice-cream, along with a bewildering selection of other temperature-controlled

products to appeal to caterers. If you are looking for ice cubes in bulk, for instance, King Bros can help. "We've got a machine that can produce 25 tonnes of them a day, and they're despatched all over the country," King says.

At King Bros' home base, Lady Lodge House, ice sculptures are produced from moulds for banquets and weddings. In charge of the ice production—as well as dry goods orders—is one of Peter's two sons, Martin.

The other son, David, is responsible for the transport operation. Ten of the 11-strong fleet are 7.5-tonners, all Leyland Daf Roadrunners/45 Series, with a Ford Transit to handle smaller deliveries. Peter King favours Leyland Daf because he is impressed by the standard of local dealer back-up. The vehicles are refrigerated, with most of the 7.5-tonners equipped with eutectic beam systems.

"They pull the temperature down very well and can go down to -35°C after they've been charged up overnight," says King. "They can cope with all the drops and door openings required during a delivery run and still retain a temperature of -20°C during the return journey to our depot, even after a hard day's work in hot weather."

The trucks generally operate within 60 miles of Peterborough, and a run could involve 40 to 45 door openings.

"On the catering side, which is the core of our business, we go even further," King says; some drivers clock up 250 miles a day.

Four of the vehicles have air-blown refrigeration units with an electric overnight stand-by. So why run the two types of system? "You pick the best option available at the time you order the vehicle," King explains. "At one stage air-blown units didn't seem to be as good at holding temperatures as beam systems, but they appear to have caught up again."

He adds that noise is also a consideration: "If you can keep down noise from trucks you should take every opportunity to do so, and the air-blown systems have good acoustic cover nowadays."

The firm runs dual-compartment trucks so that it can transport chilled and ambient goods as well as fully frozen. Ambient products are carried in the chilled area, which typically has a 1.5-pallet capacity.

Peter Jackson is King's favoured bodybuilder, although some of the trucks have been bodied by GRR Depending on usage, they remain in service for six years. The bodies are not switched to the new chassis, although King says technical progress may make this more likely in future. "Bodies have come on apace over the past 10 years," he says. "They've become lighter and they're easier to maintain and repair, with greater use of stainless steel. There's more of a chance of transferring them, albeit with refurbishment."

Tail-lifts are not fitted because they are not needed, says King. A typical delivery will weigh no more than 13-14kg, and some customers—they include shops, restaurants, and hotels—may take deliveries several times a week.

King Bros was running refrigerated van conversions 10 years ago, but drifted away from them as it moved up the weight scale. King points out that the conversions have limited ability to accept palletised loads, and the driver cannot always stand up in the back.

Eutectic beams have the reputation of being heavy, so reducing payloads, but King says that the weight difference between beams and conventional reefer systems is not that great. "It doesn't pose us problems, and what we carry—usually two to 2.5 tonnes—is well within a 7.5-tonner's capabilities," he says.

In winter demand for ice cubes and icecream falls, so most of the maintenance takes place then. "For five months of the year we could well do without 20-25% of our fleet," says King, "although we deliver a lot of mailorder hampers in November and December."

Ice-cream has become more sophisticated over the years, with the humble vanilla and neapolitan blocks that were so popular in the sixties supplanted by Viennettas and other premium products. But will the British consumer's love affair with C,ornettos and Magnums continue?

"Ice-cream sales have been fairly steady over the past four years, but they're obviously weather-dependent," he replies. "As soon as it rains, demand switches off."

So here's to a hot, dry summer!

El by Steve Banner

FROZEN SOFTWARE..

In the mid-eighties Peter King became involved with the development of a software package called Tract, designed to meet the needs of froxen-food distributors. "In those days there was no suitable software available," he says.

Although initially intended for King Bros own use, the package was soon being marketed to other distributors in the same line of business. "We set up a firm called Lady Lodge Systems," he says, "and the software is now in use at 50 companies, both inside and outside the UK!'

Tract is a Unix-based multi-user package which covers everything from route scheduling and loading to telesales and VAT returns.

CONTACT: 01133 139445.


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