Palletline’s decision to buy outright its Kent shareholder-member S&S Distribution, marked a first for the pallet network if not for the sector.
With S&S Distribution a Palletline member of some 19 years and profitable, the logic – along with relative safety - of purchasing the haulier to ensure continuity of coverage in an area of the UK that can be tricky, makes sense.
Nor is it unique within a sector that is increasingly struggling to find high quality members for what remains – with the exception of UK Pallets – a growth sector.
There are other examples, such as:
Back in 2012, Pall-Ex purchased Cornish haulier Intercounty Distribution.
Much like the Sandersons at S&S, Pall-Ex was there to provide Intercounty MD Nick Coombes with an exit route as he looked to retire from a business he’d set up in 1972, ensuring a good member in a challenging area continued to the benefit of the whole.
Pall-Ex was also savvy and struck a deal earlier this year with UK Mail, parent company of UK Pallets, which has allowed it to cherry-pick some of that now deceased network’s best members, with yet more recent additions.
Of course sometimes a speedy transaction is forced upon networks – such as in the case of Palletways purchasing the assets of Oxford Logistics (Milton) at the start of 2012 after it was placed into voluntary liquidation.
Oxford Logistics is now Palletways Oxford, part of the group’s healthy-sized own-account fleet.
And Pallet-Track has its own Brighton depot (Pallet Track Logistics, actually in Hailsham) too.
With hauliers of all networks remaining under pressure – for a host of reasons – it’s likely that S&S Distribution is far from the last deal of this type we’ll see. Ultimately pallet networks want to maintain continuity of service and if that requires direct intervention, so be it.