The past 12 months have been some of the most eventful in the history of JATEC Transport. Expansion is the key word to what the New South Wales-based family business has been able to achieve.
Based out in Dean Park in Sydney’s western suburbs, they specialise in empty pallet transport, carving out a niche for themselves in the industry for the better part of the last two decades.
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JATEC announced in February of this year it would be expanding interstate, taking up a foothold in Queensland as it looks to strengthen its operations up the east coast.
Then in March it was official as JATEC bolstered its new Brisbane operations through the acquisition of Max Waldau Transport’s pallet transport division. Max Waldau Transport has been registered since 2011 and operates out of the Jimboomba region south of Brisbane and west of the Gold Coast.
The acquisition includes a truck, trailer, and the transfer of the client relationships the Max Waldau side.
JATEC general manager Caitlin Barlow has been overseeing the move in one of the most successful periods for the business so far.
“The move into Queensland was definitely demand driven,” she says.
“Our customers in New South Wales were getting desperate for somebody to provide a similar empty pallet transport service up in Brisbane.
“Because we do have a unique business model, we don’t hold any product on site, we don’t have to warehouse anything. It’s just from A to B. So we’ve got a pretty agile operation. It was just a matter of getting a truck.
“Luckily one of our drivers was looking to move up to Queensland, so we sent him up there and helped out with finding him some accommodation. We started with two Queensland customers and now we’ve grown to 20.
“My vision is definitely to be across the whole east coast. This is definitely still baby steps, but that’s the long term goal.”
The expansion interstate fits well in line with the continued growth of JATEC across the years, from a one-man owner-driver business to now 15 trucks and beyond.
With that growth comes greater demand for JATEC’s services and while it hasn’t been a massive jump just yet, Caitlin says, it is continuing to get busier.
JATEC is looking to keep filling out its fleet to be able to cover its greater east coast presence.
“We’re getting close to needing to get another driver on board now,” Caitlin says.
“We’ll look to source someone from Queensland, because currently both our drivers up there were from New South Wales from our current employee pool.
“The expansion has just kind of filled in the gaps to what we were already doing. We’ve got some really big customers that are very loyal to the JATEC brand, so that kind of helped kick it all off.
“Now, Max’s customers have filled in the gaps, and from there it’s been word of mouth. Now we have had some customers reach out from Brisbane that are keen to jump on board after hearing that we’ve moved up there.
“It’s great to know that we’ve got customers that are out there championing us on and we do have a lot of support from LOSCAM, a pallet pooling solutions partner, as well the team both down in New South Wales and in Queensland.”
Being an empty pallet transporter gives JATEC a spot in the industry which isn’t filled by too many other operators.
It’s something that Caitlin has identified as a growth opportunity, and a service that their customers greatly appreciate.
It has only made the expansion efforts more fruitful so far, with the reliable and specialised service that JATEC can offer.
“It’s definitely a very niche part of the supply chain world, but one that’s very important, as we saw when we had the big pallet shortage a few years ago,” Caitlin says.
“I think that the thing that sets JATEC apart is that we do offer transport for both CHEP and LOSCAM pallets. So for our biggest suppliers that are carrying both, it’s really easy for them to just let us handle the whole thing. It takes away a worry for them.
“And that’s something that’s really helped us expand into Brisbane, because the customers that we’ve brought on board have found they now have better communication with suppliers.”
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