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Linq Alliance says its huge increase in turnover for the second year running is attracting dissatisfied members of other consortiums to enquire about signing up. The consortium's chairman Bob Terris declines to name members, but he says Linq Alliance's streamlined structure and low overheads are leading to "high levels" of  enquiries from members of other distribution companies who are questioning their own returns.

And he adds that the con-sortium has already achieved 50% of last year's profit in the first four months of the current trading year. The 23-member-strong group increased turnover by 89% for the year to June 2007 Terris says this was largely due to organic growth. Pre-tax profit was 3.5% of sales.

Terris says 3PLs are currently struggling with falling margins and profit, but Linq Alliance is succeeding due to the wide-ranging skills of its membership. He says: "A truck costs so much to run you can squeeze out empty miles and mix and match, but when a truck is stuck in a supermarket for three hours there's nothing you can do about it.

"The areas we are in control of operationally we have made as efficient as we possibly can." Terris adds: "We have minimised the overheads so we are able to pass more of the rate on to our members. Their profits from Linq come from work they  did, rather than dividends of the central operation." Linq Alliance has also announced the appointment of John McCune to the board. Previously general manager, McCune becomes executive director.