Kinaxia Logistics has snapped up Bristol-based David Hathaway Transport, the 12th haulier in its portfolio.

The purchase gives Kinaxia its first foothold in the South West, adding to its existing presence through acquisitions made in the North West, North East Midlands, South, South East and East Anglia.

Founded by its namesake in 1976, David Hathaway Transport is a family-run business, in line with Kinaxia’s previous purchases, which operates from two sites in Yate, near Bristol and Royal Wootton Bassett, near Swindon.

It offers a general haulage and pallet operation employing 130 staff, while running a fleet of 65 vehicles and 100 trailers, with a warehouse capacity of around 190,000sq ft.

In its must recently published annual accounts, for the year to 31 May 2018, the haulier had a turnover of £14m (2017: £13.6m). It made a pre-tax profit of just more than £451,000 in line with the previous year's.

The haulier is also a member of Palletforce, Palletline and PartnerLink,

All company employees will be retained by Kinaxia, including the four-strong management team: MD Matthew Hathawy, fleet and warehousing director James Hathawaty, quality director Christopher Hathaway, and finance director Michelle Crocker.

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Kinaxia logistics director Peter Fields said: “As we set out at the start, Kinaxia’s strategy has been to acquire successful, professionally operated, service-focused, family-owned companies and our purchase of David Hathaway Transport to give us a foothold in the South West should not really come as a surprise to anyone.

“Our focus can now shift to developing the improved services and efficiencies that a broad-based national haulier can offer”.

Matthew Hathaway, MD at David Hathaway Transport, added that with his father looking to retire, the decision to join Kinaxia group was a “natural decision” for the business.

“The Kinaxia strategy is one that we can truly identify with and we feel that our service-focused values and aspirations to grow, fit perfectly with Kinaxia,” he said.

Fields added that Kinaxia’s strategic intent remains for its companies to stay within any networks that the acquired business originally aligned itself to.

He also reiterated that the group’s actions and operations “have demonstrated that we pose no threat to the existing pallet networks” and that the business is keen to work in partnership with those networks that want to retain the members it acquires.

“Kinaxia’s acquisition of 12 companies, currently in five different networks, means that, in contrast to single-company members, it would be virtually impossible for us to move our existing companies into a single network,” said Fields.

“As such, the larger we get, the higher the benefits and the lower the risk we present to our network partners. We also offer to provide additional benefits to all network members, through enhanced financial stability, increased growth rates and the possibility of sharing Kinaxia resources to optimise network costs and reduce potential caretaker costs.”

Kinaxia was formed in 2012 with the acquisition of Bay Freight. Since then it has bought 11 more logistics firms: William Kirk, NC Cammack & Sons, Foulger Transport, Lambert Brothers Haulage, Panic Transport (Contracts), AJ Maiden & Son, Mark Thompson Transport, BC Transport 2017, AKW Global Logistics, and Fresh Freight Group.

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