12 Jul Interview with Thomas Van Mourik of Culina Group
Interview with Thomas Van Mourik, CEO of Culina Group
How long has Culina Group been working with Gray & Adams for?
We have been working together for 18 years now acquiring our first Gray & Adams trailer in 2001. Since then Culina Group have taken around 500 trailers in a variety of specifications to support our logistics operations across the UK and Ireland. Culina Group have a very strong business relationship with Gray & Adams, an excellent company that is very much in sync with our own approach as an organisation.
How do you feel the Culina Group business aligns to the Gray & Adams business?
Our businesses align extremely closely in terms of how we operate and what we seek to achieve for our clients. Both organisations focus direct attention on the specific needs of each customer to define an offering that meets and exceeds their own individual requirements. We are both collaborative in our approach, consult with clients at every stage, and can be flexible and reactive to changing needs. We both work with clients to ensure that we deliver when we say we will and provide timely delivery, great quality and great service.
What are the key innovations in the industry in 2019 from your perspective?
From a Culina Group perspective, the key innovations would be around providing a clear point of difference that will enable us to provide consistently improving service support to our client base and a unique competitive edge to help us to win business in a highly competitive arena. Key innovations for Culina Group would be investment in increasingly more fuel-efficient, quieter and lighter vehicles that are more economical and environmentally friendly. In addition a more personalised trailer fleet to enable Culina Group to add unique value for each client that we serve.
What value does Gray & Adams add to Culina Group customers?
At Culina Group we have a strong customer centric approach. I am pleased to say that Gray & Adams do too. In conjunction with Gray & Adams, we work collaboratively to design and build exceptional fleet support that is well engineered, and of the highest quality to ensure optimum service performance. Gray & Adams are clearly an established market-leading manufacturer. They provide a wide range of products which are enhanced by their commitment to delivering cutting edge solutions geared specifically to the needs of individual clients.
How does Culina Group ensure it always stays at the forefront of industry innovation?
Culina Group in 2019 marks its twenty-fifth year in business. We’re now a market-leading UK Logistics organisation employing over 6,500 people at over 60 sites across the UK and Ireland, with more than 1,200 trucks and 2,500 trailers on the road. Culina Group is building a unified family of strong specialist logistics businesses. Each of our specialist businesses operates in their own unique marketplaces, but all complement each other, working together towards our common goal of growth through service excellence and innovation.
It’s all about people at Culina Group. We have great infrastructure and resources, but we know that it’s our people who make the biggest difference as we move forward as a business. We continue to identify new opportunities for acquisition, joint venture and investment, and by consistently providing unique levels of service to all our clients we continue to grow, thereby strengthening continuity of relationships, business confidence, and job security for us all.
Culina Group is a magnificent food and drinks logistics success story. Part of our success story is the on-going support of high performing and highly valued suppliers – Gray & Adams are the perfect exemplification of that support.
How do you feel about the Culina Trailer being displayed at the 2019 Commercial Vehicle Show
We were very pleased to have one of our 44-pallet lifting deck trailers displayed on the Gray & Adams stand at this year’s Commercial Vehicle Show. That particular trailer displays our new eye-catching 25th Anniversary livery, which we are very proud of.