LauritzenCool Logistics (LCL) this week entered into a joint venture with George Hammond plc to form LCL UK & Eire Ltd to provide a one-stop-shop logistics service for UK receivers.
LCL already provides logistics services to small and medium-sized producers in Latin America and South Africa, and Dover-based George Hammond has a long association as a stevedore and agent with the liner services operated by Lauritzen. This jv brings George Hammond into the logistics sector and provides an opportunity to squeeze costs out of the chain.
George Hammond md Brian Madderson explained the new link up: “As reefer container volumes into the UK are increasing, a door-to-door service is now needed to give better control and care of product,” said Madderson. “The venture is two thirds LauCool and a third George Hammond and will be based at Hammond House in Dover, although it will also involve our offices in Sheerness and Bristol. It is being run as a separate package to LauCool so there is no pressure for it to use in-house reefers unless it makes financial and operational sense to do so.”
The office, which started trading on December 1 is headed by Simon Korkie who is on secondment from LCL South Africa. He will be supported by Mick Tedder and Jim Reet from Hammond as well as Christiaan Visser, also from LCL South Africa.
LCL UK & Eire will be able to follow containers through from packhouse to receiver by liaising with LCL’s office in the source country, holding containers on arrival if required, ensuring plug-in, temperature control and customs clearance before organising feeder shipping and/or haulage to the receiver, as required. It is a niche in the market ordinary container operators are not best placed to fill as reefer containers make up such a tiny proportion of their overall business.
LCL has already opened a jv in the Netherlands with the Royal Burger group and has offices in Japan and the US where it is forecasting expansion in 2005.
“The UK is in a very special situation. The retailers there are the real drivers in the world today,” said Ole Schack-Petersen, managing director of LCL. “They are aligning themselves with producers in the southern hemisphere and looking for a full door-to-door service.
“This is a very exciting development and one that we think is necessary to cover the full scope of the transport chain for perishables - we have the necessary focus to follow cargo through from production to consumers.”
The LCL concept has expanded rapidly in the four years since the first office was opened in Chile and there are now offices in Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the Netherlands, Japan, Peru, South Africa, Uruguay and the US.
No comments yet