Thames Freeport - Britain's Trading Future

[ 58 ] P & O F E R RY M A S T E R S P&O Ferrymasters is putting its assets together with those of its parent company, DP World, to deliver robust end-to-end supply chain services across road, rail and sea. While remaining totally committed to the UK, the company is focused on expanding its business in fast growing Eastern European markets and beyond, and is already supporting new trade lanes with intermodal solutions for those customers that have moved their centres of production to these areas. P&O Ferrymasters’ intermodal terminal in Oradea, Romania, already offers a rail-based link between Western and Eastern Europe and there are fantastic opportunities to collaborate more closely with sister companies such as Unifeeder, which operates Europe’s largest feeder and shortsea network. These investments and partnerships mean that P&O Ferrymasters will be able to play a role in the new Silk Route trade lanes connecting the Far East and Europe. Looking at the biggest growth routes, it’s clear that the company’s geographic footprint is expanding: Turkey to France; Turkey to Scandinavia; Spain to the UK, Czech Republic to the UK. P&O Ferries already operates a twice daily unaccompanied service between Zeebrugge and Tilbury2, Britain’s newest and largest unaccompanied ro‑ro terminal, purpose-built to provide the quickest, most carbon-efficient and resilient route to the largest market in Europe for unaccompanied traffic. This service carries over 200,000 freight units each year and it is a vital part of the thousands of sailings that P&O Ferries operates annually. The Zeebrugge–Tilbury2 service is due to expand in 2022. Tilbury2 has a direct link to the UK’s strategic road network and is seven miles from the M25, enabling rapid access to 30 million customers within 75 miles. This impressive transport infrastructure makes it an ideal point of entry for consumer goods. Additionally, the intermodal rail terminal supports the UK’s longest container freight trains, allowing environmentally friendly connections to the north of the country. On-site UK border operations and space for expansion round off the value proposition of this location which is one of the key supply chain hubs for both P&O Ferries as well as P&O Ferrymasters. At DP World’s London Gateway Logistics Park, situated only eight miles from P&O Ferries’ Tilbury operation, P&O Ferrymasters opened its 231,000ft² (21,460m²) bonded distribution centre in July 2020. LG 231 is located at the heart of the Logistics Park and sits alongside DP World London Gateway Port, offering unique multimodal integration. This was P&O Ferrymasters’ first facility in the UK supporting both imports and exports. P&O Ferries and P&O Ferrymasters have an exceptional track record of connecting geographies and industries with Thames Freeport further enhancing P&O’s ability to act as a trade enabler by facilitating growth for customers. P&O Ferrymasters container being loaded onto MS Norstream at the Port of Tilbury Tilbury2 has a direct link to the UK’s strategic road network and is seven miles from the M25, enabling rapid access to 30 million customers within 75 miles. This impressive transport infrastructure makes it an ideal point of entry for consumer goods