A financially distressed South Coast haulage company operating a fleet of 40 Scania tractor units and over 130 mostly skeletal trailers. Moving containers around the UK to customer depots from Southampton and Felixstowe ports. Significant logistical issues around assembling and storing the fleet including security. Three significant finance interests to co-ordinate. A potentially solvent Administration.

The brief:

• We were instructed by proposed Administrators to prepare a Red Book valuation of all chattel assets, predominantly a well maintained fleet of Scania tractor units and Dennison skeletal trailers.
• Instructions included detailed consideration to logistics and costs of recovering, storing and selling the fleet.

• Significant value in owned assets and equity in all finance assets established early on.
• Trailers with third party containers moving between Southampton and Felixstowe docks and located on customer sites identified as key logistical issue.
• Temporary storage sites in Felixstowe and Southampton identified forming key elements of the disposal strategy.
• Detailed disposal proposal prepared including sites, along with costs for all elements including temporary fencing, security, marketing and staffing.
• Utilising company staff and contractors, all tractor units and trailers secured into appropriate safe storage sites with security monitoring.
• Third party containers returned in orderly process.
• Individual disposal proposals prepared for three finance company stakeholders resulting in all assets remaining in one disposal by online auction.

• Extensive marketing campaign including social media resulted in £2.4m realisation with estimated costs coming in on budget.
• Sales concluded and all stakeholders settled in a timely manner and the whole process executed in approximately three months from initial site visit.
• A solvent Administration with significant surplus returned to shareholder.