Haulage firm sold to German competitor

JA Leach Ltd, a family-owned haulage firm based in Rochdale has been sold to a German logistics giant, Dachser, for an undisclosed sum.

The company, which was a member of the Palletline network, employs around 90 people and had 40 trucks operating mainly in the north of England. In the year to March 31, 2009 it made a pre-tax profit of £458,404 and had net assets of more than £5.5m.

Dachser, which has 17,500 staff in 306 locations and revenues of more than euro3.2bn, has UK operations in Dartford and Northampton but did not have a northern office. The firm’s UK managing director Nick Lowe described the deal to Crain's Manchester Business as “an ideal fit”.

“Both share the same traditional values of personalised, high-quality service levels; both are family-owned enterprises. In addition, Dachser will be able to bring new levels of investment in IT and infrastructure to the current Leach resources,” he added.

JA Leach director John Leach said that he was happy that his business was “passing into a very safe pair of hands”.

“I am sure that this development will present great opportunities for all our staff and customers,” he said.