Kinaxia inks five-year deal with toy company James Galt & Co creating 20 jobs

Kinaxia Logistics has agreed a five-year warehousing contract with toy firm James Galt & Co.

The agreement sees Galt sign up for the sole use of a 100,000sq ft warehouse in Warrington, Cheshire, at the headquarters of Kinaxia firm Mark Thompson Transport (pictured).

Kinaxia is investing £500,000 to fit out the new building with lighting, racking, handling equipment, CCTV and a warehouse management system.

The contract with Galt, which has its headquarters in Cheadle, Greater Manchester, will create 20 jobs at the site.

The new warehouse was completed late last year at Mark Thompson Transport’s base on the Stretton Distribution Centre in Appleton.

Galt’s range of toys, games, puzzles, arts and crafts and equipment such as trampolines will be distributed from Warrington to UK stockists including Amazon, Argos, Hobbycraft, John Lewis, Sainsbury’s, The Entertainer and Waitrose, as well as independent toy and gift shops.

Items will also be picked and packed for export to Europe, Japan, China, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Australia and the United States.

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Vanessa Hope, sales and marketing director at Kinaxia, said: “We are delighted to welcome James Galt & Co to our warehouse facility in Warrington. It’s an iconic toy business with a fantastic client base.

“This is an extremely exciting contract for Kinaxia which will generate much-needed employment in the area.

“We are very pleased to be forging this link with such a well-known and respected brand, and look forward to working with the team over the coming years.”

John McDonnell, MD of James Galt & Co, said: “The Warrington site is a wonderful location, being just 20 minutes from our offices and within easy reach of the motorway network due to its closeness to the M6.

“We explored numerous options when we were seeking a new warehouse and distribution centre, and this was the outstanding choice in terms of the quality of the people and the operation.”

Kinaxia is made up of 13 freight and logistics businesses across the UK with over 1,600 staff and a fleet of more than 800 vehicles. Companies bought by Kinaxia since 2015 include AKW, Bay Freight, Cammack, David Hathaway, the Fresh Freight Group, Foulger, Lambert Brothers, Maidens, Mark Thompson Transport, Panic Transport and William Kirk.

The group, which has its headquarters in Macclesfield, Cheshire, has two million sq ft of warehouse facilities nationwide, offering contract packing, e-fulfilment, returns management and storage services.

According to its latest annual results for the year to 31 December 2019 Kinaxia saw revenue leap 48% to £169.9m (2018: £114.9m). However pre-tax losses increased to £1.8m from £755,540 in the previous year, which the company attributed to the cost of acquisitions in the period.