UK Food Importer Signs Contract Hire Deal with Prohire

Commercial vehicle contract hire and fleet management company, Prohire Limited has supplied a number of temperature controlled 26 tonne rigids to Amersham-based Asco Foods. The importer and distributor of south east Asian foods has agreed a contract hire with full maintenance deal, which puts Prohire in overall charge of its temperature-controlled fleet.

The specification of the latest vehicles supplied are Mercedes Actros with sleeper cabs and Solomons dual compartment bodies and column tail-lifts.

Asco Foods is a fast-growing wholesaler of authentic fine foods from The Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and the Asian region and its rapid expansion makes fleet flexibility especially important. Director Sunny Chadha explained, “As our business has evolved, we are carrying larger volumes of bulk goods. That has resulted in needing the right payload and the ability to have the flexibility of ambient, frozen and chilled products in any pallet configuration from 2 + 12 to a straight 16 pallets. Prohire appreciated the requirement and was pivotal in specifying the right vehicles.

“The ongoing service is equally important. Having had experience of working directly with a main dealership for our transport requirements, we realised contract hire with full maintenance was the better way forward. The preference is to use a one stop shop like Prohire who can offer support for the flexibility we need. Firstly, it has a fleet of alternative vehicles as and when needed, so business interruptions are minimal. Secondly, the team is very responsive and makes life easier for us from procurement to management to maintenance, genuinely going the extra mile to make sure the customer is happy.”

Prohire supplies commercial vehicles and full fleet support services to a wide range of business sectors including foodservice and catering, chilled food and pharmaceuticals, builders’ merchants, leisure retail and the brewing industry as well as to specialist logistics companies.