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Truck and Track
Spring 2019
www.truckandtrack.com44
Culina Group – A food and drink logistics
success story 25 years in the making
It’s a big year of high profile
celebrations for Culina Group
in 2019 as the business marks
its 25th year in business.
Now
a
market
leading
UK
logistics
organisation
employing over 6,500 people at over 60 strategically located
sites across the UK and Ireland, with more than 1,200 trucks
and 2,000 trailers on the road - Culina Group is a magnificent
food and drinks logistics success story.
The seeds of theCulinaGroupbusinesswere sownwayback in1994
when the company was established in Market Drayton, Shropshire.
Founded the same year that the Channel Tunnel opened, Culina
Group began as a single site operation serving just one client.
Building a strong reputation and solid foundations for growth,
Culina Group opened its central operation and fully automated
chilled warehouse at Market Drayton in 1998.
Steady growth continued over the next few years. In 2001, a site
in Milton Keynes was established as a UK distribution platform for
FMCGmanufacturers based in the UK and Europe. In 2006, a site in
Stafford opened further improving client distribution support.
As the “noughties” drew to a close, the momentum of growth for
Culina Group began to accelerate. In 2008, Culina Logistics (The
Group’s chilled division) merged with Baylis Transport to create
a new 3PL business under the Culina name. In the same year the
business opened a 200,000 sq. ft. site at Haverhill.
The following year sawmajor developments as Wincanton merged
its chilled consolidation activities in the UK with Culina Logistics,
and CulinaGroup entered into a joint venturewith contract packing
business IPS, significantly adding value to client operations. Then in
2010, as a newdecade dawned, a joint venturewith SHS Group saw
a new 3PL solution across Ireland established.
In 2012, the London Olympic year, Culina Group continued on the
acquisition trail with an agreement to take over the supply chain
activities of Cert Octavian, and the following year further enhanced
its nationwide network with the introduction of a 210,000 sq. ft.
state of the art chilled distribution centre in Bristol.
Contract packing business IPS was fully acquired in 2014, before
significant Culina Group expansion took place in 2016 with the
announcement of a major deal to acquire the highly reputable
Great Bear and the establishment of a joint venture with CML, the
discount retail 3PL specialist. The same year saw Great Bear open
Port Salford the UK’s first “Tri-modal” (Road, Rail, and Sea) facility.
Further expansion in 2017 sawCML fully acquired by Culina Group,
and a joint venture agreement with market-leading Irish haulier
Morgan Mclernon. Again, major infrastructure foundations were
laid with the introduction of the massive Great Bear operation at
Markham Vale.
In 2018, Culina Group growth momentum had shown absolutely
no signs of slowing up as the announcement of a joint venture
with market leading baked goods logistics business Warrens Group
was followed closely by the acquisition of fresh produce logistics
business – Robson’s of Spalding. Finishing off the year, IPS acquired
food-manufacturing and co-packing business FoodPack.
With acquisition, expansion, continued investment, and significant
new contracts, 2018 was certainly another landmark year for
Culina Group with the company’s growth trajectory increasing in
spectacular fashion.
CULINA GROUP