A BOOTLE haulier is preparing for its next phase of growth with a £2.25m investment and a series of changes within the business.

Abbey Road Tanks (ART) is spending £1.5m on 15 trucks and six tankers that will be delivered over 13 months, starting in March, and a further £750,000 on its IT systems.

It is also boosting its senior management team with a series of appointment and promotions to enable it to look after its existing customers while aggressively growing the business.

ART transports the raw food ingredients – liquid chocolate, oils and syrups – to manufacturers, such as Burton’s Biscuits, like the liquid chocolate, the fats, the syrups.

It employs 250 people, mostly at Bootle.

Steve Granite, ART’s managing director, said: “We have grown the business massively over the last five or six years – and we want to double the size of the business in the next five.

“These tankers and trucks will give us extra capacity in both the bulk liquid and bulk powder markets in the first quarter of 2011 and will improve the age and reliability of the fleet.

“This is the start of our strive to improve service levels even further and ensure they are sustainable throughout the period of anticipated growth.”

The European mainland is already proving to be one route to growth. From having done just one load a week in and out of Europe, it has grown so that 10% of its near-£20m turnover is now being generated outside the UK.

The changes will also see current joint owners Steve and Mark Lucy dilute their shareholdings, with 11% of ART’s shares to be shared between fellow directors Mr Granite, Harry Conroy and Dave Coulson.

In July, it won the Haulier of the Year award at the 2010 Motor Transport Awards and will go on to represent the UK in the European Transport Company of the Year contest.

It is continuing to strive to improve its customer service, and has just completed a survey of its customers which shows significant improvements.