Fullers Logistics loses transport deal with Mars

Berkshire firm Fullers Logistics has lost its 44-year-old transport contract with confectionery-maker Mars.

The Slough-based company will stop handling distribution for Mars from January 2011.

The deal, which began in 1966, had involved Fullers collecting products from Mars'Dundee Road site in Slough and delivering them to the chocolate-maker's warehouses in Leicestershire and Northamptonshire.

A Mars spokesman says: "Mars is looking for ways to improve its performance in providing high-quality products.

"As part of this ongoing work, we have recently re-tendered our freight-to-warehouse service, currently being provided by Fullers. The business has been awarded to another supplier."

The company declined to reveal the name of the new transport provider.

However, Fullers Logistics has retained its contract to provide the inbound warehousing and factory services for the Mars facility in Slough.

No-one from Fullers was available to comment.

The firm's last set of accounts for the year ended 31 December 2009 reveal a 19% revenue fall to £9.3m, down from £11.4m the previous year, due primarily to the haulage operation, and a 34.7% drop in pre-tax profit to £193,598.