Leighton Buzzard-based Miniclipper Logistics celebrates 50th birthday with £5.5m investment in trucks and site expansion

Miniclipper Logistics celebrated its half century of trading last month by announcing a £5.5million investment in its transport and warehousing divisions as it heads for a record year of trading in 2020/21.

Miniclipper enters its sixth decade having recently invested £2.7m in a new 4-acre site in Dunstable where it will relocate its entire transport operation, including a mixed fleet of 40 x 7.5-tonne, 12-tonne, 18-tonne and 44-tonne trucks and 30 trailers. After spending a further £400k on IT, telecoms, security and site improvements the transport operation is relocating this April.

This move to Eastern Avenue will be topped off in late Spring with the delivery of two new 12-tonne MAN trucks and five new Lawrence David trailers which add to the 11 MAN tractor units it took delivery of in June 2020, at the end of the first lockdown. This is part of Miniclipper’s £500k investment in its fleet.

This fleet relocation frees up Miniclipper’s Billington Road site in Leighton Buzzard to expand its warehouse capacity in the area which previously housed the truck fleet.

It is investing a further £2.2m on this site to increase its capacity to over 10,000 pallet spaces by October 2021. This combined investment will give Miniclipper over 450,000 square foot of storage and over 38,000 pallet spaces across five sites in Leighton Buzzard, Houghton Regis and Dunstable.

The company, founded by Mick Masters in 1971 in Leighton Buzzard remains a family business with his son Peter and daughter-in-law Jayne currently at the helm as managing director and sales director, and his two grandchildren part of the 140-strong workforce.

Mick responded to an advert in the Leighton Buzzard Observer looking for someone to develop their own parcel delivery service in 1971 and so the company was born. Today it provides a range of transport, storage and warehousing solutions for the medical construction, print, retail and food sectors and is a shareholder member of the Palletline network.

“We are proud to still be a family business after 50 years and we combine this personal approach with providing companies with a first-class transport, storage and warehousing service,” said Peter Masters, Miniclipper Logistics’ managing director.

“That’s why we are still successfully trading and investing in our business 50 years on. That attention to detail and personal service is a rarity in our sector in 2021 and our customers appreciate it greatly,” he added.

Miniclipper has ridden the pandemic storm very well with strong profitable growth, in particular across its pharmaceutical and industrial sectors. This was further boosted by landing one major new account in the print and graphics sector which required the complete outsource of storage, fulfilment and distribution services. It looks set to beat the £15.2m it delivered in 2018/19 with a year-end forecast turnover of £16.1m as of May 31, 2021.

It has maintained its three-year truck and seven-year trailer replacement strategy to service this growth.