A Merseyside logistics specialist has tied up a three-year contract with a packaging supply company to help service its new £3m production facility in Manchester.

SSO Logistics has secured a new contract with fellow St Helens company, Venturepak, which supplies injection-moulded plastic containers and other packaging products to the food industry.

It is an extension of the original 12-month deal between the two firms and follows Venturepak’s success winning a contract to produce ice cream containers for a household name brand.

These products are usually made abroad and imported, but Venturepak has invested £3m in a new manufacturing facility in Manchester to produce the containers itself.

Venturepak first turned to SSO Logistics after struggling to find a reliable logistics partner who could work on addressing its high damage rates.

As well as becoming an integral part of Venturepak’s distribution model, SSO is also providing British Retail Consortium (BRC) accredited warehousing facilities for its goods at its Haydock site.

All shipments are transported through the Wolverhampton-based Pallet-Track network, where SSO works with other independent haulage companies to transport goods nationwide in an efficient way.

Martin Barber, director at Venturepak, said: “I’ve worked with SSO Logistics for a long time now, starting with a previous company I ran and bringing them along to Venturepak,

“We bring in a lot of pallets which can be quite easy to damage, and SSO are by far the best firm I’ve worked with in terms of getting the pallet to the customer in the condition it should reach them.

“Transportation is the biggest part of what we do and almost everything goes out through SSO, so this ongoing partnership is a hugely important part of our business.”

SSO Logistics director Peter Draper said: “The reason our partnership works so well is because Venturepak know they can call us day or night if they have any issues. It’s the comfort that comes from knowing there are people on the other end of the phone who care.

“Our discussions were very fruitful. My position was ‘you’ve got a lot going on, you don’t want new people coming in all the time. Why don’t you sign with us again so you can concentrate on growing your brand and business?’

“It’s a company which is big on processes and customer service, as are we and Pallet-Track.

“It’s all positive at the moment as we keep growing, and we expect our new warehouse to be full in the next couple of months. Then we’ll take stock and look at plans for further investment in 2025.”

SSO Logistics recently opened a 40,000sq ft unit in Widnes, complementing its existing sites in St Helens and Haydock. The Haydock site was awarded freeport status by the government in 2023 and SSO is awaiting confirmation of the same status for the new Widnes site.

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