Tranz Rail’s Refrigerated Freight Business Sale

10 October 2000

Tranz Rail’s Refrigerated Freight Business On The Market

Tranz Rail is seeking expressions of interest in the purchase of its refrigerated freight business. An information memorandum will be issued shortly to interested parties.

Tranz Link Refrigerated has been part of the company’s freight operation since 1994. Before that it operated as RFL Transport.

Tranz Link Refrigerated provides temperature controlled freight services throughout the country. It is a multi-modal business comprising a specialist refrigerated truck fleet, Ice-Liner rail wagons and a number of chiller/freezer transit facilities that allow transfer between road and rail in climate-controlled conditions. The major facilities are in Auckland, Palmerston North and Christchurch.

This move is part of Tranz Rail’s restructuring to concentrate on its core freight operations according to the company’s new Managing Director, Michael Beard. Refrigerated transport is regarded as a niche market in which Tranz Rail does not need to operate directly.

"We have just completed a comprehensive review of all of Tranz Rail’s activities and it is clear that the company’s future lies with high quality line-haul rail and inter-island ferry services. We will also be developing our general distribution business that will operate on a mode-neutral basis," said Mr Beard.

"We are testing the market to see if other parts of our current business that are not part of those core functions would sit better with other operators."

"Tranz Link Refrigerated is a self-contained business that might generate more value as part of a specialist transport network," Mr Beard said. "We will be evaluating expressions of interest over the next couple of months."

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