Transportation fuel supplier and distributor Greenergy has bought Barnstaple-based William C. Hockin (Tankers) as part of wider plans to grow its long distance operations.

Founder and MD Bill Hockin, who will join Greenergy’s board as a non-executive director, said this week that he had no plans to sell his dry good haulage operation William C Hockin (Transport).

The Hockin tanker division, which comprises of 20 vehicles, will be integrated into Greenergy Flexigrid as a specialist long-distance operation.

Greenergy Flexigrid is the fuel distributor's in-house haulage business.

The deal also sees the transfer of 20 drivers to Greenergy Flexigrid, which employs 500 drivers and runs a 130-strong fleet of trucks and trailers (the latter figure pre-acquisition).

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Greenergy chief executive Andrew Owens, said William C. Hockin’s tanker division had worked with the company for ten years and provided “exceptional” support for speciality movements such as bioethanol and super gasoline trunking and regional support services for third parties.

Owens told motortransport.co.uk that rapid growth in Greenergy’s business over the past few years had been the spur for the acquisition.

He said: “We were the lion’s share of Hockin’s tanker business and they were doing the lion’s share of our long haul operations.

“The growth of our trunking operations has been relentless over the past few years due to excellent service levels and that growth has given us greater opportunity to invest in the tanker operations and to geographically extend its range, so it was the right time to buy the business,” he added.

Bill Hockin, who founded William C Hockin in 1974, said he was confident that Greenergy was “best positioned to explore further opportunities for our business”.