Red and yellow assault on supermarket distribution

By PAM GRAHAM

An Australian logistics company is expanding in New Zealand, but it is not Tranz Rail suitor Toll Holdings.

Instead more red and yellow Linfox trucks will be on the road because the Australian company has won a three-year contract to distribute goods around the North Island for supermarket operator Progressive Enterprises.

While Toll has been taking a big bang approach to New Zealand with its bid for Tranz Rail, which comes with a large truck fleet and freight forwarding business, Linfox has been slowly building a warehousing and distribution business in the specialist, fast-moving goods market for 14 years.

The value of the Progressive contract is not being disclosed but it is understood to be worth tens of millions of dollars a year.

Progressive's managing director, Ted van Arkel, said Linfox would provide transport services for Countdown, Foodtown, Woolworths, Price Chopper, SuperValue, Fresh Choice and Woolworths and Gull service station outlets in the North Island. The work was previously done by a range of operators including TCD transport and Linfox.

Linfox New Zealand managing director Stewart Halligan said his company's own fleet and the resources of alliance partners Halls Refrigerated and Penguin Freight would be used to fill the contract.

"The additional business will create employment opportunities both within the company and the potential for owner-driver arrangements," he said.

Linfox is Melbourne-based and privately owned. The story of how founder Lindsay Fox built a logistics empire - the company has 4000 trucks, 9000 employees, 800 armoured cars and real estate assets - from one truck is one of Australian business' rags-to-riches stories.

Linfox has had Woolworths as a customer in New Zealand for 13 years.

One of its big Australian customers is Coles Myer.