Transport company Mannway collapses into receivership

Melbourne-based transport and logistics company, Mannway Logistics has been pushed into receivership by its bankers, just two years after the company went on an acquisition drive.

The company, established in 1979 and owned by Stuart Brown, is now in the hands of Ferrier Hodgson partners George Georges, Brendan Richards and Morgan Kelly, who will keep the company running as usual while they conduct a review of its financial position.

It is then likely the receivers will prepare the business for a trade sale.

“Mannway is a long-established, well-known transport business with an impressive number of blue chip customers,” Georges said in a statement.

“It has been a victim of the extraordinarily difficult economic conditions facing the transport industry at present, but in the hands of another transport operator will represent excellent value.”

The transport sector has been hit hard by the downturn. In an industry where margins are wafer thin at the best of times, small operators have found it hard to compete for a shrinking amount of work.

Mannway may have found itself under further pressure from two acquisitions it made in 2007, at the height of the boom.

According to transport industry website Logistics, Mannway bought Melbourne-based companies Dove Transport & Storage and Coolaroo-based RSP Transport, and also pursed an 8.5 hectare property in the suburb of Footscray that was owned by Dove.

In 2005, Mannway bought Trueline Transport, BlueScope Steel’s Sydney logistics terminal operation at Villawood and an associated intermodal rail terminal operation in Newcastle.

There is some confusion over the exact size of the business. The receivers say the company has 300 staff and turnover of $70 million, while the Mannway website claims 800 staff and $150 million in sales.