7 April, 2021

Briggs acquires pair of Irish hire businesses

Posted on 7 April, 2021 by Keith McKinley

Briggs Equipment has completed the acquisition of Laois Hire Services Limited, one of the Republic of Ireland’s leading plant hire companies, and has also completed the purchase of the Dublin-based business Balloo Hire Limited, whose operation in the north of Ireland is already part of the Briggs Group.

These latest acquisitions further strengthen Briggs Equipment’s presence within the Irish market, and will help to diversify its product and service offering in the territory to now include the hire of plant, welfare units, pumps, generators, variable message signs and the provision of traffic management solutions.

From several sites across Ireland, Laois has developed a strong reputation over 20 years for delivering high quality plant hire services and establishing lasting relationships with a diverse customer group. Laois has also provided vital services to many of Ireland’s key infrastructure projects in recent years, including the development of Ireland’s motorway network and the construction of the International Terminal 2 building at Dublin Airport.

The acquisition of Balloo further advances the strategic diversification which began with the acquisition of its sister company Balloo Hire Centres Limited, based in Belfast in 2019. Since being acquired, the Northern Irish business has gone from strength to strength and by adding its sister operation, Briggs now hopes to replicate this success in Dublin.

Briggs says these acquisitions further demonstrate the Briggs Equipment Group’s long-term commitment to ongoing business development and underlines its position as the UK & Ireland’s leading asset management and engineering services specialist.

Peter Jones, Briggs Equipment’s Group Managing Director, commented: “We are delighted to have completed the acquisition of both Laois Hire and Balloo Hire Limited. Both businesses have a strong track record of delivering value within the Irish plant hire market and we’re confident that with the backing and support of the Briggs Equipment Group, the businesses will go from strength to strength.

“Over recent years, we have worked hard to build our presence within Ireland’s materials handling sector and we’ve had good success in this area. These acquisitions enable us to further diversify our offering and provide a comprehensive and cohesive proposition that now includes plant hire across the entire island of Ireland.

“Despite the challenges that the Coronavirus pandemic has presented over the past year, we are committed to pushing forward with our business development and acquisition strategy. This acquisition demonstrates the robustness of our business and our ongoing commitment to strengthening our market position.

“We look forward to working closely with the teams at both Laois Hire and Balloo Hire and supporting their future growth and product expansion as part of the Briggs Equipment Group.”

As a wholly-owned subsidiaries of Briggs, Laois and Balloo will continue trading under their own name and with all current operational contacts remaining in place.

Briggs acquires pair of Irish hire businesses

Posted on 7 April, 2021 by David Priestman

“We look forward to working closely with the teams at both Laois Hire and Balloo Hire and supporting their future growth and product expansion as part of the Briggs Equipment Group.”

As a wholly-owned subsidiaries of Briggs, Laois and Balloo will continue trading under their own name and with all current operational contacts remaining in place.

Polish logistics hub acquired for €28m

Posted on 7 April, 2021 by Keith McKinley

Aberdeen Standard European Logistics Income PLC (ASLI) has signed a purchase agreement for the previously announced acquisition of a modern logistics and distribution property in Lodz, Poland. ASLI will acquire the asset for €28.0 million, representing a net initial yield of 5.6%, from logistics and industrial developer Panattoni.

The 31,500 sqm Panattoni Lodz City VIII Logistics Centre consists of 27,888 sqm of warehouse space and 3,612 sqm of office space. The asset is 100% leased to six tenants generating a Net Operating Income of €1.59 million and with a Weighted Average Lease Term of 6.7 years.

Tenants at the asset include manufacturers Bilplast, Tabiplast, Mecalit Polska and Alfa Laval, logistics operator EGT Express Polska, retailer KAN, which owns the Polish fashion brand Tatuum, and Compal, one of the world’s largest computer component manufacturers, which signed a new 7-year lease in February 2021 and supplies the DELL factory located less than 1km from the site.

Located at the centre of Poland’s thriving industrial and manufacturing sector, the property is situated adjacent to the Bosch-Siemens Campus, which is a strategically important production and distribution hub for the international manufacturer. The site benefits from access to the Intermodal Container Terminal, created to support the Bosch-Siemens campus, which offers direct rail connections with China.

Lodz is Poland’s third largest city by population and is home to several universities. The Panattoni Park site is highly accessible by local public transport and the A1 and A2 motorways which provide North South, East West access across Europe, whilst Lodz international airport is just 15 minutes away.

Evert Castelein, Fund Manager for ASLI, commented: “The warehouse in Lodz is a very high-quality income producing asset located at the heart of one of the CEE region’s most strategically important manufacturing and logistics hubs. The asset’s proximity to the nearby Bosch Siemens Campus provides strong long-term attraction to occupiers in this supply chain, while the new international railway station and its direct links to China and other European markets provide unrivalled international connections. The Lodz region is in high demand from occupiers and the vacancy rate is one of the lowest in Poland.

“We believe strongly in Poland’s growth prospects and are pleased to be making our third acquisition in the country, and to have secured this asset at an attractive yield in a competitive logistics market. We are actively pursuing deals in the wider region and whilst the demand for logistics property has led to further yield compression, particularly in core markets, the overall return prospects for investors in this sector are expected to remain strong as operators continue to seek additional capacity and the reshoring of operations from overseas gathers pace.”

Cushman & Wakefield advised Aberdeen Standard European Logistics Income PLC.

Polish logistics hub acquired for €28m

Posted on 7 April, 2021 by David Priestman

Cushman & Wakefield advised Aberdeen Standard European Logistics Income PLC.

WMS drives growth at auto salvage firm

Posted on 7 April, 202129 July, 2025 by David Priestman

SnapFulfil WMS is helping to power forward an automotive salvage specialist’s ambitious five-year growth plan, which is predicted to boost turnover to a £1/4 billion.

Charles Trent Ltd, based in Poole, Dorset and founded in 1926, is among the UK’s top three car recycling companies, with a thriving online parts business, but its labour intensive and unreliable, paper picking process wasn’t geared up for quick expansion.

Having invested £4million in a new 30,000 sq ft distribution centre at the start of the year, Charles Trent also ensured that an architecturally robust, highly flexible and easily configurable WMS was part of the digital infrastructure.

The new DC facility is 14 levels high and has top picking height of 13 metre and state of the art racking. Their high-tech operation has been influenced by Amazon, and is the only one of its kind in the country, where you can source a particular part online and then have it delivered next day.

Despite the pandemic challenges SnapFulfil WMS has been able to drive highly accurate storage, putaway, picking and packing via the RF scanners and massively improve visibility for all parties across unique and diverse product ranges.

Charles Trent’s Distribution & Operations Manager, Matthew Groves, says: “We used to have return issues and about 2-3 orders per day going astray within the old system, but we’re now achieving close to 100 per cent accuracy with SnapFulfil and we’re only just getting started. Full traceability like this is a real benefit in a variable business such as ours.”

“The storage and distribution transition from the old warehouse and processes to the new, digitally-driven distribution centre has also been pretty seamless.”

By the end of April ‘21 Charles Trent will be fully operational from the new DC, which currently has capacity for 60,000 ‘green’ recycled products, ranging from used components such as engines and gearboxes to small parts and interiors. With SnapFulfil’s assistance, 110,000 parts should be processed in and out during 2021, increasing to 170,000 in 2022.

Company resource is also much more streamlined, efficient and productive with the new DC in operation 18 hours daily, across two shifts – for a massive increase in order processing capacity, but without the need for additional resource.

Groves adds: “One of the other main reasons we chose SnapFulfil is its ability to scale with us and its flexibility to meet all of the ongoing and future demands of our business. The kitting functionality is great and can support rapid scaling of fulfilment processes, as well as multiple site facility rollouts.”

Another five potential new sites are due to open by 2026, all close to main population centres in areas such as the North, Midlands, South West, plus London and the South East, which will include both distribution and recycling centres.

WMS drives growth at auto salvage firm

Posted on 7 April, 2021 by David Priestman

SnapFulfil WMS is helping to power forward an automotive salvage specialist’s ambitious five-year growth plan, which is predicted to boost turnover to a £1/4 billion.

“The storage and distribution transition from the old warehouse and processes to the new, digitally-driven distribution centre has also been pretty seamless.”

5G at Le Havre port – from trials to roll-out

Posted on 7 April, 2021 by Keith McKinley

On his visit to Le Havre, Cédric O, France’s Secretary of State with responsibility for the Digital Transition and Communications, set out to take stock of current development projects based around new technologies. After being designated two years ago as an “Innovation Area” Le Havre, having earned a reputation as ground-breaker, is now on the point of moving from trials to commercial roll-out.

Back in 2018, as part of the Smart Port City programme, the “5G Lab” collective centred on the port and the urban community was formed with three industrial corporations – Nokia, Siemens and Électricité de France (EDF). The objective of the five partners was to identify application scenarios that could, after some experimentation, be developed across the Seine Axis ports.

In the presence of Edouard Philippe, Mayor of Le Havre and Chair of the Le Havre/Seine Urban Federation, Cédric O took this opportunity to discuss the issues with the partners and to analyse the progress made on the identified application scenarios. The core issue is of major importance: how in a competitive context to add to the attractiveness not only of the port complex but also the entire Seine Axis.

Among the first application scenarios that have been identified there is the optimisation of upkeep operations for the port’s navigational areas: the implementation of 5G would notably provide improvements and greater safety for the daily dredging campaigns in the channels and docks.

A major step forward has also been made in the city and port 5G trials. This is so because Stéphane Richard, CEO of Orange, the French telecoms operator, has announced the roll-out of 5G, which will boost the projects currently in their test phase. This announcement is encouraging for the port and its partners in their ground-breaking drive for digitisation of the local region.

“The Smart Port City programme is a shared ambitious goal to make Le Havre a port complex that stands as a benchmark for the ability to innovate. This remarkable partnership-based effort around 5G will give the port of Le Havre a core technology conducive to the invention of novel applications able to be duplicated subsequently elsewhere in the world,” explains Edouard Philippe, Mayor of Le Havre and Chair of the Le Havre/Seine Urban Federation.

In the view of Baptiste Maurand, CEO of HAROPA – Port of Le Havre, “5G offers interesting possibilities for making the port more competitive. For example, it can help us improve communications between sea and land. Just having a network-connected port navigational area will enable us to optimise certain operations that are essential to safe navigation in the port. It will also allow us to gather multiple types of data (weather, seabed conditions, and so on) for greater precision and efficiency. The primary beneficiaries will be our customers, among them the 6,000 ships that call at our port every year.”

Matthieu Bourguignon, Vice-President Europe, Nokia Enterprise adds: “Nokia is very proud to partner Le Havre city and port in their innovative drive for digitisation, notably by contributing to the 5G Lab. We will be using it to trial a range of industrial applications to demonstrate what dedicated 5G coverage can provide in a port environment. The segmentation of the network – ‘network slicing’ – made possible by 5G will allow us to allocate the data rates, latency and levels of security required for each user, thereby helping the port of Le Havre enhance its attractiveness.”

Antoine Garibal, Director of Strategy at Siemens France, expresses the view that “in the 5G Lab collective, working in close partnership with HAROPA – Port of Le Havre, Siemens provides fine-grained expertise in industrial processes and digital transformation along with tried and tested methods for identifying new applications of 5G for the port of Le Havre and its industrial complex as a whole. The trials conducted with our partners have led to the identification of new applications, demonstrating that 5G’s reliability and flexibility make it a particularly suitable data communication solution for Future Industry and the Seine Axis ports.

“This ambitious, rigorous approach based on co-construction is the right solution for the requirements of industrial companies, providing greater resilience, competitiveness and sustainability.”

Alban Verbecke, Director of Normandy Regional Action at Électricité de France explains: “The 5G Lab in Le Havre will allow us to field-test 5G’s technical capacity to manage electricity grids. 5G’s low latency is a real breakthrough in this area, especially for micro-grids.

“In addition, the analysis of application scenarios for the port/industry complex is also of interest for EDF as an industrial company. The initial applications for information system security, Industry 4.0, drones and industrial safety/security are of interest to the Group as a potential customer for these forms of technological progress.”

5G at Le Havre port – from trials to roll-out

Posted on 7 April, 2021 by David Priestman

“This ambitious, rigorous approach based on co-construction is the right solution for the requirements of industrial companies, providing greater resilience, competitiveness and sustainability.”

Brexit packaging regulations ‘here to stay’

Posted on 7 April, 2021 by Keith McKinley

New regulations governing the movements of wooden pallets and packaging (WPM) since Brexit will remain indefinitely, according to the UK government.

Speaking at TIMCON’s general meeting at the end of March, Defra’s head of programme, Will Surman, told delegates he believed ISPM15 measures stipulating that all WPM travelling between the UK and the EU must be heat-treated are ‘here to stay’. It was also noted that, with average temperatures forecast to rise globally, ISPM15 compliance may also soon become the norm for WPM moving between countries within the EU to eradicate any risk to plant health.

Surman thanked TIMCON and the WPM industry for its work preparing for Brexit, which he said had been critical to a smooth transition and achieving a low level of compliance issues after the 31st December, 2020 deadline.

TIMCON president John Dye (pictured) echoed the comments and said establishing an open dialogue with Defra early in the process had been central to planning successfully for the change.

“The message is clear that the work we have coordinated with Defra to prepare our businesses for Brexit has stood us in good stead for a future where ISPM15 could become the norm,” he said. “The industry’s investment in extending heat treatment capacity means we were ready at the start of this year and well prepared should compliance requirements be extended to apply at the borders of further destinations.”

Surman said enforcement of ISPM15 regulations in the UK is continuing with a risk-based approach, where limited resources are targeted on WPM arriving in the country from high-risk origins.

The general meeting also heard from Brent J. McClendon, President and CEO of NWPCA, who gave an update on the US pallet and packaging business as the international market has recovered. He also spoke about his organisation’s work to promote the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) awarded to pallets, as an important endorsement of the industry’s sustainability credentials.

Gareth Stace, director general of MakeUK/UK Steel, spoke to delegates about the availability and price issues affecting his sector, which he said mirrored those currently affecting the wood business. He added that even after supply and demand returned to a better balance, he expected the ongoing global situation to keep prices high.

Meanwhile, Alun Watkins, executive director of PEFC UK Ltd, gave a presentation on sustainability and certification, which includes the launch of a chain of custody logo that businesses can use to demonstrate the percentage of certified timber they use.

During the meeting, TIMCON updated its membership on its ongoing work to represent the pallet and packaging industry, which included coordinating with other industry associations, such as the Wood Panel Industries Association (WPIF) and the Wood Recyclers Association (WRC). It also advised that the Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging consultation document had been released and the date for final comments is 4th June.

TIMCON, having welcomed the reduction of targets for wood from 48% to 35% for 2021/22, said it will continue to work hard in this area to promote reuse before recycling.

There were also updates on the European market and activities of the European Federation of Wooden Pallet & Packaging Manufacturers (FEFPEB) from TIMCON past president and FEFPEB honorary treasurer, Gil Covey; and TIMCON’s work on ISPM15, communications, and the TIMCON/NAPD pallet stacking height guide.

Brexit packaging regulations ‘here to stay’

Posted on 7 April, 2021 by David Priestman

New regulations governing the movements of wooden pallets and packaging (WPM) since Brexit will remain indefinitely, according to the UK government.

TIMCON president John Dye (pictured) echoed the comments and said establishing an open dialogue with Defra early in the process had been central to planning successfully for the change.

Surman said enforcement of ISPM15 regulations in the UK is continuing with a risk-based approach, where limited resources are targeted on WPM arriving in the country from high-risk origins.

TIMCON, having welcomed the reduction of targets for wood from 48% to 35% for 2021/22, said it will continue to work hard in this area to promote reuse before recycling.

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