"To lose one… may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness." This year we’ve lost three of the (formerly) one hundred largest operators in the UK, either by business failure or acquisition. Is this misfortune? Carelessness? Or something else altogether?
At the end of last year the industry lost City Link (MT Top 100 ranking: 17th). Deben Transport (MT Top 100 ranking: 65th) folded yesterday.
And we’re not even counting the end of UK Mail Group subsidiary UK Pallets….
TNT (MT Top 100 ranking: 7th) will be, no doubt, subsumed into FedEx (MT Top 100 ranking: 21st). Even Framptons – which by our reckoning, with a turnover of £16.9m, would be 110th in the UK – will stop being a line item in our ranking of the largest road transport operators in the UK by turnover, after it was acquired by Gregroy Distribution.
On the surface it appears that we are shedding operators and logistics businesses out of the MT Top 100 at a remarkable rate. But is it that remarkable? Last year saw the likes of Roadways Container Logistics (bought by Maritime) and Seafield Logistics (administration, followed by acquisition) drop out of our annual rankings.
Business like Imperial Tankers (formerly a division of Hargreaves, now Suttons) would have been large enough for a Top 100 ranking on its lonesome, and it was acquired too.
By that logic (and some very dodgy maths) we’re pretty much at the mean average of three already in 2015.
Transport is a dynamic business, and the failure of City Link, or the acquisition of TNT, may have surprised in their timing, but certainly not in the fact that they actually happened.This activity isn't carelessness or misfortune, it's business as usual.
• An interactive version of the Motor Transport Top 100 2014 is now available for all registered Motortransport.co.uk users.
M&A Activity 2014
FEBRUARY 2014 – Pollock (Scotrans) acquires Gillbraith (TS).
APRIL 2014 – Simarco acquires freight-forwarder IFB.
APRIL 2014 – Private equity firm EmergeVest buys-out NFT Distribution backer Phoenix Equity Partners in a deal that valued the business at £60m, including debt.
JUNE 2014 – Seafield Logistics enters administration. Its bulk powder transport business is acquired by Abbey Logistics Group. Lomas Distribution buys its Winsford warehousing business, while The Green Group acquires its Worksop depot.
JULY 2014 – DFDS Group acquires Quayside Distribution.
AUGUST 2014 – Alliance Boots takes full ownership of UniDrug Distribution Group, buying the remaining 50% it did not own for £66m.
AUGUST 2014 - Gregory Distribution acquires the fresh produce distribution operation of MMD (Shipping Services).
AUGUST 2014 - Maritime Group acquires Aegeus Transport – the holding company of Roadways Container Logistics.
SEPTEMBER 2014 - Sutton Group acquires Imperial Tankers, the bulk chemical transport arm of Hargreaves.
NOVEMBER 2014 - Müller Wiseman UK & Ireland agrees to acquire the dairy operation of Dairy Crest Group, including the division’s distribution activities.