TIP Tanker Services and Williams Tanker Services (WTS) used last week's Tank-ex show to highlight its full range of tankers, including fuel and gas tanks, for rent and contract hire.
This year’s Tank-ex was the first since TIP acquired Morley, Leeds-based WTS in August 2016. WTS will remain as an independent business for the foreseeable future and will continue to be the UK distributor for Belgian tanker builder LAG which, like TIP, is now Chinese-owned.
TIP business development manager Peter Hughes said the acquisition had made TIP a “one-stop shop for operators wanting to buy or rent any type of tanker”.
“We never touched fuel or gas tankers before we bought Williams,” he said. “TIP wanted to move into the market and that is why we went for a successful, well-known business. It has been a game-changer for us.”
WTS employs 40 staff, of which 28 are fitters, at its site in Morley, which includes a 17-bay workshop.
“Williams is a great family business and we want to keep that ethos, but make it work smarter,” said Hughes. “We can sell, rent, refurbish and maintain the full range of road tankers.”
TIP’s stand featured an LAG aluminium tipping powder tanker (pictured). It has a rental fleet of 100 fuel tankers, as well as building and selling LAG tankers to customers’ exact requirements. The rental tankers will also be for sale, avoiding the six months lead time to get one built to order.
Since TIP was acquired from GE Capital by Chinese automotive group HNA in 2013 it has been aggressively expanding, buying the fuel tanker rental business Haartz Tankers in April last year, which added 150 tankers to the rental fleet, and buying another 500 new tanks of all types including food and chemicals.
