Davies Turner is All Ship-Shape at Bristol - New Regional Distribution Centre Now Open for Business

Bristol, United Kingdom, May 21, 2008 --(PR.com)-- Independent freight forwarder Davies Turner has completed the construction of a multi-million pound expansion to its freight and logistics hub at Avonmouth, Bristol enabling it to offer complete supply chain solutions from the site.

The total area of the company’s warehousing at Avonmouth now amounts to more than 15,000 sq. metres, comprising the existing purpose built transit facility, plus the newly built distribution centre.

With a clear eaves height of 16 metres, the new distribution centre has 21 loading doors and can hold around 11,000 standard pallets in high bay racking. In addition, there are four mezzanine floors, giving an extra 8,000 sq. metres of operational floor area. Occupying a site of more than 25,000 sq. metres or over 6 acres in area, and employing more than 100 staff, the expanded Bristol hub also offers ample space for trailer parking.

Increasingly, Davies Turner is finding that customers require large open-plan areas for order-sorting and checking. With so much additional space for this activity, directly linked to the racked pallet storage and connected by internal conveyors, Davies Turner’s new distribution centre provides a very cost-effective flow of products from receipt of goods through storage, picking and despatch.

Completion of the construction work comes just over a decade after Davies Turner opened its original transit hub for the West Country and seven years after the company built a prototype 2,000 sq. metres mezzanine in the Phase 1 building to cater for the increased number of clients needing order-sorting capacity, as well as Customs warehousing.

Following the completion of the new distribution centre, Davies Turner’s Bristol Western Freight Terminal is now able to accommodate customers’ full supply chain requirements for consolidation and transit goods, as well as full Customs-controlled logistics services.

“This is the basis of much-needed expansion for Davies Turner in the South West as our transit depot was already working to full capacity,” said Philip Stephenson, joint managing director of Davies Turner.

“We were fortunate that the extra land adjacent to our existing building became available at exactly the right time last year. We have installed compatible CCTV and security systems which are integrated with those installed throughout the rest of the Group facilities.

”Supporting this physical investment in infrastructure and trailers is our equally important commitment to communications and software development, simplified customs procedures and order-tracking, all of which enable us to meet the shipping and supply chain management needs of our customers.

“Davies Turner has an excellent track record for successful warehouse development, including both dedicated and multi-user facilities. Warehousing services support export-related and inbound logistics, distribution and rework services in a way that improves customers’ inventory management, reduces total operating costs and improves cycle times.”

Bristol is one of Davies Turner’s key multi-modal freight hubs, serving South Wales and the West Country with satellite branches in Bridgend and Plymouth. The company’s other Regional Distribution Centres (RDC) are at Birmingham, Dartford, Heathrow, Manchester and Cumbernauld in Scotland as well as Dublin in Ireland - with a further 16 satellite branches supporting them.

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Notes to editors: Established in the 1870s, Davies Turner & Co is the UK's largest independent freight forwarding and logistics group. The company operates its services through its own exclusive network, offering a high quality operation backed by integrated IT systems, financial stability and professional personnel.