News

Pallet network Fortec will place increasing emphasis on its international service this year as it aims to expand following a move into its new hub.

The move, a £5m investment exclusively revealed in Motor Transport last week, will pave the way for the network to increase the number of members in the system and to widen the range of services it offers.

Its international service is handled by parent company Geodis. Fortec goods are trunked to Geodis's High Wycombe site for  onward transport into its European network, serving 23 countries.

Fortec says that providing there is sufficient growth in this part of the business it hopes to handle the trunking to Europe in-house.

It claims it is the only UK network offering daily departures for European freight. However rival Palletways offers a dedicated daily service to 10 European countries.

Neil Hodgson, regional business development manager at Fortec, adds: "Most other networks offer Tuesday and Friday departures and their freight might still be in the UK by the time ours has been delivered."

Fortec will launch two other new services later this year: Fortec Secure - for high value loads and Fortec Online for small business access to the network over the web.

The company says that it expects its profits to grow by around 10% this year and volume by 15%.