Armoric Freight International Celebrates 50 Years

Celebrating 50 years of success as of this year, Armoric Freight sets its sights on continued growth and significant sustainability efforts that will reshape the future of the business.
Amongst the industry's foremost experts in European refrigerated freight, Armoric Freight International Ltd is one of the most prolific transporters of refrigerated goods to and from the European market. Although initially founded in 1975 as a forwarding company with strong links into Brittany, the company has since grown quite exponentially in its 50 years of operation and now maintains capabilities across full load and groupage refrigerated services throughout the UK and Europe, and has built a reputation on the safe and efficient transport of refrigerated meat products.

As an overarching summary, Armoric Freight imports full loads from Europe and has a groupage service from Brittany, which still represents the firm's core region of focus alongside most areas of France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, and Spain. The firm also maintains its very own in-house customs department to ensure minimal disruption in moving loads between the UK and EU markets and boasts a dry storage warehouse with a capacity of approximately 1800 pallets - supporting local services for dry freight deliveries. Taking a brief look at the fleet, Armoric Freight has a fleet of 14 trucks and 20 trailers, including a mixture of makes and models across the Volvo, DAF, and MAN ranges.

Although offering some dry freight solutions, 18 of Armoric Freight's 20 trailers are refrigerated, including specialist: meat hanging trailers, dual compartment trailers, and Eurorail trailers. The two remaining trailers constitute curtainsiders which are primarily used within the organisation's locality of Plymouth to supplement the warehousing arm of the business. Over the past 12 months Armoric Freight has undertaken a significant level of investment back into the fleet, including the purchase of five new tractor units, a secondhand curtainsider, and a new electric forklift for use in the warehouse (we'll return to this shortly).

Investments into new vehicles have also been paired with similar investments into the firm's telematics, tracking, and communication systems to ensure a modern fleet operation that can instil a sense of security and assurance in its client base. We spoke with Kath Lewis and Kevin Willcock, Directors of Armoric Freight International Ltd, who offered further insight into the firm's telematics and tracking capabilities: "We have tracking systems for all of the trucks and trailers, so we can keep customers updated of any delays on deliveries.

We can also track that the temperature of the fridges are as they should be. If a customer requires a thermograph printout for a load, as they sometimes do for their audits, that is easily done and sent over to them in a few minutes. We can also send messages to the drivers on the truck tracking system, so they have addresses and any more details that they required immediately.

"The warehouse has a modern stock system, so that the customers can have a stock update if they require one, and we will know in which racking bay any pallet has been located. We have a customs system in place,  so that we can continue to operate the customs department, in a confident and fast manner, so that our customers can rely on us to make sure that no trucks are stuck on any of the borders with a problem." Returning to the recent investment made into an electric forklift, the investment serves as part of Armoric Freight's continued commitment to sustainability and environmentally friendly operations.

Already, this has included significant investments across the organisation's warehousing facility, in the form of solar PV installations, as well as the introduction of vehicles with improved fuel economies to the fleet itself. Through the investment into an electric forklift, Armoric Freight is now seemingly improving its ability to tap into the energy generated on-site and making efforts to electrify those areas of the business that can be. As for what the future may hold for Armoric Freight, the firm comes off the back of 50 years of commercial success with clear ambitions to modernise operations even further and expand operational capabilities so as best to pair sustainability efforts with improved growth prospects.

This will see further updates to the firm's fleet of trucks and trailers, specifically to drive fuel efficiency and allow for the firm to drive down its carbon footprint.

Broader expansion of the fleet itself is also being considered as a means of expanding operational capacities going forward. 

Transport & Logistics - Driving The Industry Forward