I am delighted to tell you about our journey from simple beginnings to where we are today in becoming a national logistics supplier of choice on the island of Ireland.
In the 1930s, as general merchants, my Father collected butter/ bacon and poultry from the surrounding farms for export to London and returning with tea, sugar, and flour.
The importance of the “backload” or return load value then still resonates strongly for us today. My Father expanded into the transport business and throughout the 1940’s Lucey’s supplied road materials to local Government councils.
At that time the Irish state had a monopoly on road freight, the industry was highly regulated, each truck had to carry a license which was tightly controlled and very expensive.
Through hard work and careful cash management, my father accumulated several licenses allowing for fleet expansion. Our big break came in 1949 when Cadbury (MDLZ) opened a chocolate manufacturing factory in our locality. As a result, Lucey’s secured a contract to deliver chocolate crumb to the port for export and to the Cadbury plant in Dublin. Indeed, this is a contract we still hold today seventy years later.
In the early 60’s always looking for ways to reduce costs and increase revenue Lucey’s were one of the first Irish companies to purchase articulated trucks- thereby doubling our carrying capacity overnight.
In the 1970’s, Kevin Lucey the CEO of Lucey Transport Logistics took over the business at a young age and has been instrumental in its growth and development for the past fifty years. It is during his tenure as head of the organization that the company has seen its greatest growth and transformation to become the number one in the FMCG sector (Advantage survey result 2020) and as a family we are extremely proud of this position.
70 years on Lucey’s continue to provide 24/7 on site shunting, load planning, transport and warehousing services at the Cadbury factory. This is a testament to the importance we place on our relationship with our customers and the reason for our long and continued success. In 2015 MDLZ awarded Lucey’s the national transport (distribution) and warehousing contracts further enhancing the relationships.
When Ireland joined the EU in 1973 this provided a major boost to the Irish Dairy industry with ready markets for milk powder. Lucey’s were ideally positioned to take advantage of the market and further increased its fleet and warehousing footprint.
1981 was another important milestone for Lucey’s. Following the Britvic contract award, Lucey’s developed a warehouse and transport depot in Cork where we serviced Britvic production plants at Limerick-Dublin-Belfast thereby increasing our Island of Ireland reach.
Britvic brands include – Robinsons, Ballygowan, Club , Licences for Pepsi cola and 7up.
Further expansion occurred when Britvic rationalized their facilities and outsourced national primary transport services to Lucey’s. This required significant outlay and Lucey’s purchased 15 trucks and 60 trailers to service the business. At this point Lucey’s became a primary service provider on the Island of Ireland.
