When Terence Mordaunt and David Ord took over the Port from Bristol City Council in the early 1990s through their company now known as the Bristol Port Company, they did so with the intent of pulling the 2,600-acre dock estate out of the decline it had been experiencing since the 1980s. Having invested some £400 million into the port since 1991, the total throughput - which includes coal, cars, forest products, containers, animal feed and various other commodities, as well as fresh produce - has increased from 4m tonnes to 12mt, and revenue has reached £73m, compared to £21.6m in 1991.
The port operates from two docks, Avonmouth and Royal Portbury, that lie either side of the River Avon. Its fresh produce facility lies within Avonmouth, which handles up to 40,000t ships. The terminal became operational in 2003 and has been delivering produce direct to retailers from the start. The terminal has 14,000 pallet spaces within 17 cells that can be independently temperature controlled from -1°C to 12°C. Palletised cargo is moved directly from the reefer ship or containers to a temperature-controlled reception area, where product is scanned into a computer system. The £16m development uses radio data terminals and a real-time graphical display to keep track of the location and status of each pallet until it is redelivered.
As well as the port’s staff, fruit companies have their own quality control (QC) personnel at the facility to guarantee that supermarket standards are maintained. These QCs are provided with their own office facilities to allow them to work in good conditions. The terminal is equipped with the correct lighting throughout so that QCs can inspect fruit anywhere. Training is also given in operating scissor lifts so that QCs can inspect their fruit when they need to, without the need to move large amounts of pallets around.
The terminal allows arrivals and collections at any time during the working day. “We are not here to put restrictions on our customers,” says Brent Stephen, trade manager for fresh produce at the port. “This extends to allowing hauliers to book in deliveries and collections to suit their needs.
“The most efficient thing to do with fruit is bring it into the port, pre-packed where appropriate, and send it straight on to a distribution centre. If you look at all the distribution centres in the UK, you will find that three quarters of them are closest to Bristol. The argument is purely logistical and therefore cost-effective. Importers have their own facilities, which are there for a purpose, and the port’s terminal has to complement these facilities, allowing all parties to work effectively and achieve cost savings where they can be made.”
While the terminal has enjoyed a large amount of success and is busy all year round, it has been affected by the shift from conventional reefers to containers. “We have to accept the change in trade patterns and look to capitalise on this,” Stephen says. “To this end, the terminal is being marketed within the overall proposal to create a new deep-water container terminal at Avonmouth.
“There is a clear acceptance of the increasing congestion in the existing container terminals, both in the UK and on the continent, and this will only get worse. Department of transport figures show an increase in total demand, rising from a current 7m teu to 20m teu by 2030.
“Developing a large deep-water terminal in Bristol is part of the solution, both in terms of adding overall capacity and shifting this capacity to an uncongested area of the country. In terms of imports, it makes sense to have a major container capacity on the west side of the country at Bristol.”
The Port of Bristol already contains a deep-water container facility, as well as a short-sea facility. The existing deep-water port operates seven berths, capable of accepting vessels of up to 14.5 metre draught in Royal Portbury Dock. Two of these berths are utilised for container operations, and are capable of handing vessels of up to 6,000teu. The new deep-water facility in the Severn Estuary has been designed to service large container ships, as well as ultra-large container ships of up to 12,000teu and 16m draught.
The proposal will see the new deep-water port handling up to 1.5m teu, and it has taken the port a year to get the development to the planning permission stage. A Harbour Revision Order (HRO) has been submitted, and the port is currently in a 42-day statutory consultation period during which any organisation or individual can scrutinise the HRO or supporting documents. “We have already consulted widely and will continue to engage with many organisations and individuals, and we remain very positive we can address successfully any concerns raised,” says Stephen. “That said, projects of this size will always attract some objectors and, that being the case, a public inquiry will be held to hear the case for the Port of Bristol and those who wish to oppose the development. We have made provisional plans for a public inquiry to be held in November. It is our hope that we can be through this phase with a recommendation to central government by the end of the year, and a positive decision by spring next year. If this timeframe is achieved, the terminal could be in operation by 2014.”
Stephen believes that the new deep-water terminal will take the Port of Bristol into a completely different league. “Bristol Port has a very strong future anyway,” he says. “We deal with a number of different trades, which provides a high degree of stability to the business and allows us to grow, even though there may be downturns within a given trade. The addition of a deep-water container port at Avonmouth will increase its stature as a major port in the UK.”
The new development is set to have a large impact on the port’s fresh produce clients. “Importers increasingly rely on ports playing their role in the supply chain,” Stephen says. “This means matching a good range of supply routes with efficient container operations for the vessels and redelivery to truck. Bristol will be able to add a modern and efficient produce facility on site, removing the need to take all the containers out to an inland depot. In this respect, Bristol will be unique in the UK.”
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