Allen Munro Transport sold to new managers
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by Lee Kimber and Miles Brignall
• Controversial tanker firm Allen Munro Transport has been sold to new management for .t3m. The sale leaves the Skelmersdale-based 50-truck business with no responsibility for the long-running libel action against Sunday newspaper The Observer which followed accusations of tachograph irregularities two years ago.
"Strictly, we bought the assets and the business, not the company," says incoming chairman Michael Hill. "Therefore the Observer and other outstanding legal matters are nothing to do with us."
In October 1995 the old company was raided by police and the Vehicle Inspectorate following the Observer article. Last year a number of prosecutions against drivers employed by the
firm failed after Ormskirk magistrates ruled that the summonses were null and void. No allegations were laid against the company itself.
The new firm, also called Allen Munro Transport, says it expects to take on at least 18 more drivers to handle food and retailing work in the SouthEast. It is also planning a new distribution centre in the East Midlands.
"We're looking for a company to acquire or a site," says Hill. The problem with where we're based is that Birmingham is in the way."
Munro expects to take on 18 new Volvos and may use owner-drivers too. It currently uses its own fleet and owner. drivers,
-_. The buy-out was funded by L2m from various NatWest venture capital sources.