Welsh heads Silk Logistics road freight alliance

Six months of careful negotiation with five family-run road freight operators was what it took to create the loose alliance now called Silk Logistics, managing director Bob Welsh said yesterday (Monday May 19).

The five – Hoffmann Transport, WA Freight Group, Bunker Freight Lines, Kagan Logistics and Doolan's Heavy Haulage – represented an even spread of specialities, Mr Welsh, who left BP Logistics two years ago, said.

Silk's role would be to co-ordinate the firms to take on contracts too large for a single operator, but otherwise the firms would retain their own identities.

Mr Welsh admitted Silk was represented heavily in the southern states, especially around the port of Melbourne but said that this would change in time.

Gresham Partners, an arm of unlisted private equity firm Gresham Investment House, created Silk in early April and had approached Mr Welsh after he had left BP, to run it.

Gresham has been involved with several heavyweight mergers and takeovers recently, including advising BG on Origin Energy, BHP Billiton on Rio Tinto and Wesfarmers on Coles.

On the transport front, it advised on the sale of Australian Railroad Group to Babcock & Brown Ltd and Queensland Rail and, earlier, on the acquisition of the Western Australian Government's Westrail Freight Business.

It also advised Finemores on the Toll group's successful takeover bid.