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Acquisition hungry Hargreaves Services says it is aiming to become a top five player in the bulk haulage and tanker sector after it snapped up Imperial Tankers for a potential £7m. Hargreaves paid £5m for the Billingham, Stockton-on-Tees firm in the deal completed late last week, with another £2m up for grabs depending on the performance of the combined businesses  in the first year of trading. Plans to merge the two firms are underway, and will make Hargreaves one of the top five UK chemical tanker operators.

Financial director Peter Dillon says Imperial Tankers is “a very healthy business” and discussions have been taking place for three months. He states the acquisition will offer “much more efficiency and better logistical planning” alongside the firm’s other tanker operations in the North-west and the Midlands. Operational savings will be gained from the reduction in empty miles travelled, he adds.

Imperial Tankers will keep its brand until its fleet needs replacing, says Dillion, after which tankers will be in Hargreaves’ livery. Its 120-strong  staff will transfer, taking the total employed by Hargreaves to 2,000, and the management team will remain part of the merged business. “That was one of the key reasons for the acquisition – the strength of the team,” Dillon says. Hargreaves is looking at the possibility of other acquisitions, but Dillon says there are no specific targets at present. He also rules out a move into general haulage: “What Hargreaves does as a business is niche markets and our aim is to become one of the biggest players in each of those,” he says.

The firm has been fiercely acquisitive since a management buy-out in May 2004: it has bought at least one business a year since then, with the last transport purchase the acquisition of Gilbraith Tankers in May 2006. Imperial Tankers started trading in 1989 following an MBO of ICI’s former road tanker operation. In its last financial year, Imperial made a pre-tax profit of £1.35m on sales of £16.1m.