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Maritinne Transport has stayed at the top by being in the right place at the right tinne says MD John Willianns

Getting the timing right

By Christopher Walton

For those unfamiliar with

John Williams, he is the MD
of the biggest container haulage operation in the UK,
Maritime Transport.
He began his career in
transport at Russell Davies,
rising through the ranks to
director level before the firm
was sold to Securicor Omega
Logistics. That business was
eventually swallowed up by
DHL.
Williams kept busy, first
working for part of Hutchison
Ports, the company that owns
Felixstowe and Tilbury
container ports, known as
Maritime Haulage, and then
leading a management buyout
to create Maritime Transport
in 2001.
Fast forward to the end of
2009 and, faced with a lossmaking operation and a
wretched container haulage
market, DHL sold off its
container business - the
former Russell Davies operation - to Williams.
The change in the size of
the business during those
years was dramatic. At the end
of 2009 Maritime had a turnover of 69m, and this had
fallen 19% year-on-year as a
residt of the recession. By the
end of 2011 it had a turnover
of 121m, and while its 2012
numbers are yet to befiledat
Companies House, Williams
indicates that the figure will
be significantly higher.
Rivals hit skids
Throughout this time some
of Maritime'srivalshave hit
the skids. Deben Transport
bought fellow container haulier Elite Transport Services
out of administration in April.
Elite had been trading under
the terms of a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) - a
process that lasted just over

" f:

two months until the administrators were called in.

And who could forget
Bulmer Transport also went
into administration in 2011,
two years after it conducted a
pre-pack.
Williams has never been
anything but scathing about
artificial attempts by businesses to remain trading.
"In a competitive, wellfunctioning marketplace
there does not need to be
these measures to prop up
xmsuccessful companies," he
insists. "Equally, we want to be
rewarded for theriskswe have
taken with this business in the
recession. Low interest rates
and techniques like CVAs
and pre-packs are artificially
affecting the dynamics of the
industry."
These statements might win
him as many admirers as they
do enemies, but Williams is
insistent that weH-run, successfill businesses should not be
challenged in the market by
those that have fallen by the
wayside in inaedibly difficult
trading conditions.
"I've spent 30-odd years

either seducing or terrorising

shipping lines into giving me
big chunks of business," he
says, looking back at not just
his career but Maritime's rise
to the top.
The lowest point
"We bought the business on
4 September 2001 and that,
on refiecon, was probably
the lowest point of the last
shipping cycle. As shipping
lines bring in new ships,
they create an overcapacity
and looking back to 2000
and 2001 it was seen as a very
short, down period and we
bought Maritimerightat that
very point," he says.
At the same time came the
boom in Asian manufacturing, that led to huge volumes
of imports into the UK (and
beyond). "We had compound
growth year after year and we
tiiought the good times woxild
keep on rolling."
This meant shipping firms
built bigger ships, hedging
their bets on increases in
capacity and high utilisation.
However, this led to price wars
in the market and put

inent supermarket) and has

never looked back.
"We made the decision
three years ago to go into
distribution and we did that
at just about the right me. If
we had done it any later then
we woiild not have made as
much progress as we have,"
he says. "This has broadened
the customer base of the
company and given us opportunities in UK distribution.
We have been able to improve
our productivity quite dramatically.
"Working directly with
cargo owners you can get into
delivering at nights and weekends and double-shifting
trucks. That is something we
are doing much more ofthese
days," he adds.

container hauliers at the thin

edge of the wedge when it
Break-even point
came to pricing.
"We got existing agree- Williams puts Maritime's
ments torn up. We were growth down to continuous
forced to negotiate. We were reinvention and buuding up
forced to reduce our prices. It a head of steam. "Our previis a chain reaction.
ous model, and that of our
"Unfortunately, we are competitors in the container
stul in that phase of the cycle market, is for a driver to set
where our customers are still off on a Monday and come
loss-making, so the bust is back on a Saturday, typically
going to last as long as the doing 1,500 miles a week.
Therefore the break-even
boom," says Williams.
"It is dreadful really. You point ofthat truck is quite
have all these massive ships high.
coming into port not making
"Now we are moving to a
any money, and all these day and night model, with
trucks carrying containers up weekends as well, we can
and down the roads not improve the operational times
making any money."
ofthat truck by two or three
times. This reduces the breakeven point because our rates
Price sensitive
Hence the struggles of some have gone down faster than
of Maritime's competitors. our operational costs."
Williams insists that the
Measures such as these wiO.
container haulage market has give Williams many more
become extremely price sensi- years of either terrorising or
tive. At the same time it seducing customers into
acquired capacity via DHL's giving Maritime serious
container business Maritime chunks of business, because
moved into pure distribution they know Wuliams has the
- establishing links with cargo track record to keep the operowners (including one prom- ator at the top.

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Call us on 01422 257 100
sales@terbergdts.co.uk
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8 MotorTransport

17.6.13

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