An increasing trend by UK retailers to place more frequent and smaller orders with suppliers based closer to home, is giving a major boost to Davies Turner’s overland services from North Africa, the southern Mediterranean and the Balkans, but above all with Turkey.“Volumes on our inbound trailer services from Turkey are going through the roof, ” says sales director, John McCartney.
He adds: “Production costs may be slightly higher than in South Asia or the Far East, but shorter lead times and the ability to order higher or lower volumes in response to rapidly changing levels of demand is encouraging near-sourcing across a range of business sectors in addition to retail and bringing a significant boost to throughput, in particular on our trailer operations between Turkey and the UK.”
McCartney adds that 45 years after identifying the potential of the trade between the UK and Turkey, Davies Turner remains the market leader and derives great strength and customer benefits from working with long-term partner Ekol Logistics.
One of the most innovative transport, logistics and warehousing companies in Turkey, Ekol continues to develop rail and ro-ro alternatives to traditional direct overland operations between Turkey and the EU.
“The recent moves by Ekol to charter three ro-ro ferries to run between Istanbul and Trieste with a capacity of 250 trailers per ferry and to operate thrice-daily block trains between Trieste and Cologne, as well as Ostrava on the Czech-Poland border, gives us multiple routing options and the capacity to handle future growth, ” adds McCartney.
“Until recently, we had been cautious about taking on too many more northbound customers as we were worried about creating a trailer imbalance. But Ekol’s investment in the ferries and the block train services has sent a clear message to the market, and recent success on the southbound leg has allowed us to canvass and take on more northbound
business.”
