Heron Foods purchased new trailers from Gray & Adams

Fast-growing retailer, Heron Foods, turned to the UK’s leading manufacturer of temperature-controlled road transport equipment Gray & Adams to help it meet the operational challenge posed by the changing profile of its business.

Increased customer demand for frozen foods has prompted the need for extra flexibility to deliver higher volumes of frozen product in their fleet of trailers.

“The time and effort the Gray & Adams team have put into understanding our operation, and the way we work, underpins the success of our relationship.” – Karl Dawson, Head of Logistics, Heron Foods

As with all of Heron Foods’ trailers, the interiors have two longitudinal lanes configured in an approximate one-third/two-thirds width split. A host Carrier Vector 1950 MT refrigeration unit provides temperature control to the wide lane, while two MVS700 evaporators cool the narrow lane.

Heron Foods delivers round-the-clock to its network of stores, often in busy town centres, so while half of its new trailers are built to the standard 13.6-metre length, the other half are 11.2-metre urban versions with command steer axles that offer enhanced maneuverability for accessing tight locations.

The new trailers are also fitted with 1.5tonne Dhollandia tail-lifts – the 13.6m versions are fitted with retractable lifts but due to space constraints the urban variants have column lifts.

Finally, Gray & Adams have developed a second moving bulkhead door in the wider lane. This affords Heron Foods the opportunity to utilise the wider lane’s higher capacity for frozen product, and switch the chilled to the narrow lane. Roof-mounted and easily deployed or stowed, the moving bulkhead door offers excellent insulation properties, so that temperature integrity between compartments is maintained.

A cost-effective solution that offers optimised space to a highly space-sensitive business, creating flexible and speedy solutions to match their diverse needs.

“The increased flexibility it offers is already proving invaluable. In fact, it’s working so well in enabling us to maximise productivity and efficiency, that we may retrofit additional moving bulkhead doors to a number of other trailers on the fleet, too.” – Karl Dawson, Head of Logistics, Heron Foods

“Gray & Adams’ build quality is second-to none, while its trailers are designed specifically to accommodate the unique dimensions of our roll cages.

“While others are happy to churn out hundreds of standard trailers every week, we greatly value Gray & Adams’ engineering expertise, and commitment to working with us in developing bespoke products that meet the needs of our business perfectly.” – Karl Dawson, Head of Logistics, Heron Foods