Container sale a win-win for firms

Emmerson Transport's loss is a gain to companies and customers. Pictured are Stewart Taylor (left), managing director of Tomoana Warehousing, Hastings, and Ian Emmerson, director of Emmerson Transport, Hastings. Photo / Duncan Brown

Emmerson Transport has sold its container-handling arm to Tomoana Warehousing.

The deal, formalised last week, sees Tomoana gain nine container trucks and drivers from Emmerson.

Emmerson director Ian Emmerson said it was a win-win for the companies and their customers.

"With Stewart running a bigger pool of equipment there should be a higher level of service," he said.

The deal was not a downsizing of Emmerson, it wanted to concentrate on its core business of general North and South Island freight and refrigerated distribution, he said.

Container handling comprised just 6 per cent of its turnover. It has more than 90 trucks in seven North Island branches.

"We are very comfortable with the situation, working with Stewart and his team in partnership," he said.

"We have customers that are still moving containers and the objective is to work closely with them to get it integrated."

The deal would see an ongoing relationship between the companies "in all modes of transport".

"They are all tough games, so we have to look at wherever we can take out costs in this day and age."

Tomoana managing director Stewart Taylor said the company had about 20 container trucks in Hawke's Bay "so it complements us quite nicely".

"It is often easier to create the efficiencies you need if you have more options," he said.

"I'm sure there have been plenty of occasions where we have been travelling empty from Napier to Hastings, while they've been empty Hastings to Napier.

The new business would help smooth demand.

"Some of Emmerson's customers are in slightly different seasons - there is quite a lot of exposure to the sheep and beef industry. A lot of our customers are in horticulture or dairy. It expands the opportunities for us and enables us to fill the gaps in the peak season."

The men discussed the possibility of a deal or co-operation five years ago.

"We realised things got easier if you have a bigger pool of work," Mr Taylor said.

"At that point we looked to see if we could do a joint venture but it would have been turning two companies into three, which increased the overhead.

"We have come back to it. We have the appetite to grow and my understanding is they (Emmerson Transport) were looking to concentrate on core activities.

Mr Taylor said there was uncertainty among Emmerson customers "but now it is up to us to perform and demonstrate we are capable as well".

"It is for the benefit of importers and exporters - we can invest in equipment and provide a bigger pool of vehicles for the demands that always occur at the peak season."

Mr Taylor said there was no port congestion during the current export peak, unlike last year.

Last March an early apple season and storage constraints led to long delays at Napier Port, with some fruit missing scheduled shipping.

This year apples are about four weeks later.

Part of the port's solution was a depot for empty containers in Pandora, which Mr Taylor said was a mixed blessing.

Port turnaround time was previously an hour and was now 30 minutes, but with travel time and processing in Pandora total time was back to one hour.

"It spreads the work out but we are not seeing the turnarounds we saw two or three years ago."