From its major depots in Liverpool and Wirral, Abbey Logistics help keeps the UK supplied with sugar overseeing 350 bulk tanker deliveries every week. Tony McDonough reports

Road tanker specialist Abbey Logistics has renewed its long-term partnership with British Sugar to transport bulk sugar across the UK.

Abbey, which has its main distribution depots in Liverpool and Wirral, has signed a new multi-year agreement with British Sugar. It cements a relationship with the company that began in 2016.

Since then, Abbey says the two companies have adopted a ‘one team’ approach with Abbey becoming an extension of British Sugar’s logistics team. Together they have successfully delivered several major projects.

In September, Abbey announced it had invested £1m in a new fleet of 11 trucks to add to its existing British Sugar transport fleet. The new CF trucks from DAF feature the latest generation aerodynamics, engines and gearboxes.

As a result of the close collaboration between the two businesses, British Sugar has improved its ability to provide sugar to their customers across the UK in what it says is a much more reliable, cost effective and flexible way.

British Sugar’s position of supplying the UK market without the need to import through deep sea shipping is more effective for many UK manufacturers, thanks to the shorter lead times and reduced carbon footprint that comes from sourcing raw materials from within the UK.

As the sole processor of the UK’s beet sugar crop, British Sugar is the leading producer of sugar for the British and Irish food and beverage markets, processing around 8m tonnes of sugar beet that produces around 1.4m tonnes of sugar each year.

This amounts to more than 350 bulk tanker deliveries per week for Abbey Logistics to manage, feeding the supply chains of major food and beverage manufacturers. Sugar demand from customers can often be unpredictable, so a flexible transport operation is vital in ensuring their manufacturing processes remain in operation.

Mike Ellis, Abbey Logistics’ business development director, said: “Abbey’s contract team together with British Sugar’s logistics team have worked shoulder to shoulder over the past four years and delivered every objective we set out to achieve.

“The success of the two teams working together demonstrates the importance of a collaborative approach to transport operations of this scale and proves how effective working in partnership can be.”