News / Hapag-Lloyd acquires UK trucking outfit ATL Haulage

Photo: nickstrugnell

Hapag-Lloyd has returned to the road freight market, agreeing to acquire UK-based ATL Haulage for an undisclosed sum, and continues to invest in transport capacity beyond its core shipping business.

The Loadstar understands the plan for the newly acquired trucking firm is to operate it as Hapag’s in-house haulier in the UK, most likely supplemented by subcontractors.

However, both companies confirmed that ATL would “remain an independent company and brand, and continue to be run by the existing management team, serving all its clients in line with their existing partnerships”.

Hapag said: “The acquisition of ATL and working together with our other hauliers enables us to deliver on our commitment to provide our customers with a first-class multimodal service.”

ATL Haulage was founded in 2008 and operates a fleet of 120 owned trucks, with an average age of below two years and running on Euro 6 engines, and a network of more than 100 others from dedicated subcontractors. Additionally, it has over 250 skeletal, sliding, genset and multi-function trailers.

According to the latest accounts filed with the UK’s Companies House, in the financial year 2022 ATL Haulage posted revenues of £41.8m ($53.1m), which led to a pre-tax profit of £2.6m.

The company, headquartered in DP World’s London Gateway complex, clearly enjoyed a pandemic bounce, as these figures showed strong growth over 2021, when it reported full-year revenue of £28.7m and pre-tax profit of just under £1m. This it said was the result of rising revenues combined with falling costs during 2022.

In the recently released Gemini prospectus, outlining the expected service strings of the new Maersk-Hapag-Lloyd joint services, UK calls will see transatlantic volumes pushed through Southampton, while Felixstowe will be the hub for the Far East traffic and London Gateway is listed as the UK call on two India/Middle East services.