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Port establishes new company for road transport operations

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AV Dawson, owner and operator of Port of Middlesbrough has created a new company to support the growth of its transport division.

AV Dawson Transport Limited, which will incorporate all of the company’s road haulage services, is the latest business to become part of the AV Dawson Group.

As part of a wider company restructure to support the long-term business strategy, AV Dawson Transport Limited, is the third company to join the group structure and will begin trading from the beginning of October.

The Middlesbrough based firm has already launched two subsidiary businesses. This includes AVD Industrial & Port Services Limited, the business responsible for logistics and port services on its customers’ sites and the company’s ships agency subsidiary, Cockfield, Knight & Company Limited.

Within this new structure, AV Dawson Limited – which owns the Port of Middlesbrough estate – has become the parent company of the group.

Charlie Nettle, commercial and marketing director at AV Dawson said:

“The launch of AV Dawson Transport illustrates our growth and development as a business.

“Not only will this help us maintain strong relationships with our customers, but it will also give each subsidiary business more autonomy to invest and develop to better support them.

“We envisage this will also provide more development opportunities for our colleagues and keep talent within the business.”

The new subsidiary will be taken forward under the leadership of existing transport department managers Paul Scott and Alex Hugill, who have been promoted to AV Dawson Transport’s head of operations and head of commercial respectively.

Paul Scott, AV Dawson Transport operations manager said:

“We are excited the transport arm of the business has become an entity in its own right.

“This will strengthen the business in delivering the existing efficiencies of our current multimodal freight logistics operations and will also ensure greater resilience, so we can continue to support existing and potential customers in the long term.

“However, it won’t change the overall ethos of the company – we will continue to be the values-led, supportive, customer-focused business we have always been.”

This restructure comes on the back of a recent multi-million-pound investment to increase its vehicle fleet by 25% as part of a group wide diversification and expansion strategy.

Port acquires dry bulk facility as part of expansion

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AV Dawson, owner and operator of Port of Middlesbrough has acquired the dry bulk business, Cobra Middlesbrough, as part of its strategic investment and expansion plans.

The acquisition will see Port of Middlesbrough’s footprint grow by eight acres, unlocking further opportunities on what was previously a 100-acre site.

Cobra, based on North Road in Middlesbrough, operates a dry bulk handling terminal with processing and packing facilities. The company’s main area of focus and expertise is in the salt market, handling and distributing thousands of tonnes of salt every year.

Much of the salt stored at the facility has been mined locally. Some of the salt is used in animal feeds, but the majority is distributed to councils across the country for gritting roads during the winter.

Cobra also provides a range of services for the farming industry. The business receives, screens and bags polyhalite – which, like salt, is mined. This is then used as a fertiliser in the agriculture sector in the UK and overseas.

The Cobra site, which is directly adjacent to Port of Middlesbrough, boasts extensive rail infrastructure and has direct access to the East Coast Mainline – this provides additional rail capacity for the port to support existing and new customers.

Gary Dawson, AV Dawson managing director said:

“We’re excited to acquire Cobra Middlesbrough. We have worked closely with the business for many years, handling the import and export of salt through our port facility and supporting their rail logistics. Bringing both ours and their operations together, within one business, enables us to provide job security to existing staff while delivering greater efficiencies for our customers.

“We recognise that the site requires some significant investment, but this actually fits perfectly with our strengths and our strategy to invest, develop and expand our site.

“This acquisition is also strategically important for our wider business because of its excellent rail connectivity. We are working with more and more of our customers to help them identify opportunities to transition from road to rail, so we need to ensure we have the capacity to accommodate their requirements. This is particularly important as we look to put our net zero strategy into action with the ultimate aim to become carbon neutral – we see rail as a big opportunity to help us and our customers to achieve this.”

This acquisition is not the first time AV Dawson has made a strategic investment to improve its rail infrastructure. In 2015, the business struck a deal with Network Rail to take full control of the seven-acre neighbouring Middlesbrough Goods Yard.

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