UK logistics firm The Finishing Line ‘aspires’ to switch when DP World terminal opens next year
A UK-based logistics company is advising shipper clients to switch their containers from Felixstowe to London Gateway when the box terminal opens in 2013.
The £1.5bn ($2.3m) DP World-owned container port and logistics park 25 miles from London will open in the fourth quarter of 2013 with 1.6m teu of first-phase capacity, rising to 3.5m teu of capacity in its final phase.
Essex-based The Finishing Line, whose core business involves logistics for 70m magazines a year, says it can remove more than 500,000 truck miles from UK roads by using London Gateway.
Although the magazines are produced in the UK, they source promotional cover-page novelty gifts and toys primarily from the Far East. Many of the containers go through Felixstowe, the UK’s largest box hub that is owned by Hutchison Port Holdings.
Finishing Line chairman Andy Mead, whose warehousing is based in Basildon, some eight miles from London Gateway, said that it was still “undecided” whether the operator would move into the logistics park alongside the box terminal. “It is purely an aspiration at this point,” he said.
Mr Mead – who estimates that 70% of Finishing Line destined traffic goes through Felixstowe – added: “We are telling our customers, rather than taking your containers into Felixstowe, send them into London Gateway.”
Finishing Line handles the equivalent of 10,000 teu per annum.
“Today, you just can’t get the world’s largest ships this close to the key UK markets,” Mr Mead said. “Next year, that will all change.
“The value in London Gateway is huge for companies based in and around London and the southeast. It also offers significant savings for those in the Midlands and further afield.
“We are saying to our customers that it is a complete waste of time to send their containers up the M1 [motorway] and then back down again.
“The reason why we are advising our customers to switch from Felixstowe to London Gateway, when it comes on board, is purely to do with the logistics and the reduction in transport miles.”
Mr Mead estimates that some 30%-40% of the product ends up in London and the southeast.
“The product coming in through Felixstowe often goes up to the Midlands and back down again to us,” he said.
“It would make more sense for it to come straight to us from Felixstowe, but we can still cut out more hours and more cost out of the supply chain by using London Gateway, which is on our doorstep.”
London Gateway commercial director Charles Meaby said: “London Gateway provides a unique opportunity to save UK businesses hundreds of millions of pounds every year as we are closer to the key UK markets. It’s a simple proposition of less cost and more reliability delivered by a world class team.”
HPH declined to comment.
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