Palletline has revealed plans for a significant increase in pallet volumes as part of a five-year growth plan that includes expansion in mainland Europe and signing up two major UK haulier members.
Group CEO Graham Leitch said that the member-owned network would not be pursuing growth at the expense of quality of service, but there were significant opportunities for expansion despite the maturity of the UK pallet market.
“Our current volumes are over four million pallets per annum,” he said. “We want growth, and we have a plan to increase capacity in the next five years”
This plan will see a £10 million investment in growing hub capacity by another 6,000 pallets per night, including further upgrades to the network’s IT systems.
Palletline is unique in being wholly-owned by its 76 members who run 97 depots, which together with seven in-house hauliers, give 100% postcode coverage of the UK. This avoids ‘caretaker fees’, where external hauliers are paid to handle deliveries in areas not covered by network members.
Unlike many rival networks, Palletline eschews the concept of ‘superhubs’ based in the East Midlands, preferring two purpose-built 250,000 sqft national centres in Birmingham and Coventry, supported by regional depots based at member sites in Glasgow, Greenford in northwest London and Haydock.
Part of the expansion could be the construction of another building at Birmingham within the next two years and adding extra canopies at Coventry.
