In 2007, Trans Ocean was acquired by the Hillebrand Group which operates a global portfolio of specialist logistics companies across a range of industry sectors. The acquisition immediately gave Trans Ocean, which previously operated 6 offices worldwide, access to a global network of over 45 offices, opening up new markets for the company's innovative bulk solutions.
Following the takeover, Trans Ocean's bulk wine operations were integrated into the Hillebrand business, under the leadership of Richard Royans, Group Bulk Wine Manager. 'The beverage bulk business was the natural place to begin the integration process, because of the synergies with JF Hillebrand's existing wine logistics business model,' said Richard Royans.
Once the beverage business had been incorporated, the process of fully integrating the core Trans Ocean bulk operations into the Hillebrand Group network began, a process managed by Mike Williams of Trans Ocean Southampton, which finalised this year. In many cases this involved opening new Trans Ocean offices, rapidly expanding the Trans Ocean network into new geographic areas.
'Trans Ocean now has operations in over 45 countries,' said Mike Williams, now in a new role as Trans Ocean Corporate Account Manager. 'Integrating our bulk services into the existing Hillebrand Group office network has given us access to a far wider range of markets, allowing us to offer our industry-leading bulk services to more customers around the world.'
'We are extremely enthusiastic about future development opportunities,' said Pierre Bonel, Global Sales & Marketing Director of the Hillebrand Group. 'Traditionally Trans Ocean offered a high quality, cost-effective, innovative transport solution and we will continue to do so. In addition to this we now also help our customers worldwide to improve their customer service and achieve control of the global logistics process. We're introducing a higher logistics service level in the bulk business. 'We are in fact the only flexitank operators with a fully owned office network large enough to be truly able to offer a global freight management solution for our customers, including state-of-the IT tools and supply chain services. We now have the network in place to push on and further expand our bulk services ' while also underpinning our market leading position in bulk transportation.'
