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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, Teeside 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 firms are underway, and will put Hargreaves in 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 sites in the North-west and the Midlands. Imperial's 120-strong staff will transfer to Hargreaves and the management team will remain part of the merged business. "That was a key reason 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 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." The firm has been fiercely acquisitive since a management buy-out (MBO) in May 2004 it has bought at least one business a year since. Imperial Tankers started trading in 1989 following an  MBO of ICI's former road tanker operation.