Bill Gleeson: Fruit to return at Port’s new £60m terminal

Feb 6 2008 by Bill Gleeson, Liverpool Daily Post

THE decision by Go Associates to build a £60m fresh produce terminal at the Port of Liverpool brings one chapter in the history of the city’s docks full circle.

For the first time in decades, fresh fruit and vegetables from around the world will be unloaded from reefer ships docking at Liverpool’s quaysides before being distributed throughout the port’s hinterland.

The investment amounts to a statement of confidence in the port’s ability to reliably handle the cargo in a quick and efficient manner.

The fruit trade was lost to the Port all those years ago because of the disruptive effects of industrial action, which often resulted in produce left to rot at the quayside. In one incident, 8m bananas were dumped into the Irish Sea, costing the shipper £125,000, a huge sum of money in 1969.

What is particularly fascinating is how long it has taken to win back the trade. It’s a lesson in what happens when customers lose faith in your service.

Go Associates expects to employ 30 staff in its new operation, but think of all the lost opportunities for good livelihoods in the past decades caused by the loss of the trade.

Liverpool’s Port suffered considerable industrial unrest as recently as the mid-90s. It’s nice to see that there is now one operator that is prepared to bet that the days of strikes are behind us.

Long may it last.

* THE demise of British manufacturing continues apace.

Rolls Royce yesterday confirmed its decision to close its turbine plant at Netherton and relocate operations to the US, with the loss of more than 200 jobs.

It is particularly disappointing, because this decision has nothing to do with moving to cheap labour economies, which is the traditional reason for manufacturers quitting our shores. Instead, exchange rates have been blamed.

Rolls’s turbines are sold internationally in dollars, despite being made in the UK, where the bulk of the costs are in sterling.

Consequently, when sterling is strong against the dollar, profits are squeezed to the point where the company is left with no option but to move.

Nor are they the only manufacturer to face such challenges. Jaguar recently ceased selling its Halewood-made X-type in the US, again blaming the exchange rate.

Airbus, which has a major plant at Deeside, is assembling a huge American order for military cargo planes at a new factory in the States. While politics will have played a part in Airbus’s decision, it would be no surprise to find that the fact it would also reduce currency risks played a part.

Sadly, global market forces exert an unsentimental pressure and not even the best efforts of the Northwest Development Agency could prevent Rolls Royce’s move to America.

EARLIER this week, Ladbrokes was offering odds of 1-10 on a 0.25% cut in interest rates following tomorrow’s meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee. It also offered 20-1 on a 0.5% cut, 50-1 on a full 1% cut and rates remaining on hold was 5-2.

The Governor of the Bank of England made his feelings plain enough about what should happen to rates in a speech in Bristol a fortnight ago when he warned that inflation was likely to rise above 3% on more than one occasion in the months ahead. If inflation rises above 3%, the Governor must write an embarrassing letter to the Chancellor of Exchequer explaining the reasons behind the Bank’s failure to meet targets. You can be sure the Monetary Policy Committee will do all in its power to prevent that happening.

That’s why my tenner is on rates being held at their current level.