New Zealand’s leading freight gateway Port of Tauranga and freight and logistics management company Kotahi announced today the amalgamation of four of their complementary domestic logistics businesses to create leaner, more efficient pathways to and from freight hubs and key New Zealand ports.

Business transaction:

• A new 50:50 joint venture between Port of Tauranga and Kotahi is being formed and is named Coda; 
• Port of Tauranga is contributing the assets of wholly-owned subsidiary Tapper Transport which includes Priority Logistics; container packing and unpacking facility MetroPack and its 37.5% stake in empty container repair and storage business MetroBox; 
•  Kotahi is contributing the assets of logistics and transport group Dairy Transport Logistics (DTL);
• The transactions will be completed Friday 1 May 2015.

Coda will be led by interim Chief Executive, Scott Brownlee who has previously been Chief Executive of DTL. The business expects to move more than five million metric tonnes per year of containerised and bulk freight to and from freight hubs and key shipping ports.

Kotahi Chief Executive Chris Greenough said the formation of Coda is the next step in Kotahi and Port of Tauranga’s long-term plans to prepare for the introduction of larger ships to New Zealand. It will boost the efficiency of the nationwide supply chain, remove wasted capacity and reduce the costs of consolidating the cargo necessary for big ships.

“The Ministry of Transport Future Freight Scenarios report, released recently highlighted that New Zealand faces costly inefficiencies in the domestic supply chain. These inefficiencies need to be addressed and it will only be through players in the industry working together that sustainable cost savings can be achieved,” Mr Greenough said.

“As such, the establishment of Coda supports the agreement announced in June 2014 between Kotahi and Port of Tauranga, to commit specified volumes of freight until 2024 as part of the pathway to introducing large ship visits to New Zealand,” he said.

Port of Tauranga Chief Executive Mark Cairns said: “This new limited partnership with Kotahi is the logical extension of the June container volume agreement.”

“Coda will deliver significant efficiencies across the supply chain by driving the consolidation of traffic and improving connectivity between freight hubs across the country. As a direct result, we expect the agreement to be attractive to a wide range of import/export and domestic customers and to support growth in container volumes through Port of Tauranga’s freight handling facilities,” said Mr Cairns.

Coda interim Chief Executive Scott Brownlee said: “Coda brings a new offering to the market with its unique combination of infrastructure assets, cargo volume and service providers. This allows the business to realise value and move freight more efficiently to benefit all regions in New Zealand.”
“Our ability to bring together the right skills, infrastructure and breadth of customers will allow us to support the arrival of larger ships to New Zealand. We’re opening up local, regional and international pathways for everyone to share in the benefits.

“Currently, the nationwide logistics network carries a lot of ‘air’. Coda will optimise freight flows and better co-ordinate freight movements in New Zealand’s hinterland logistics network. Connecting cargo flows into one network system will greatly reduce the number of empty vehicles, containers and ships travelling around the country.

“We will continue a high level of service to existing and new customers, while utilising our planning systems and span of customers to marry-up capacity for domestic and import cargo which mainly flows south from the upper North Island, with capacity for export cargo, which mainly flows north.

“Coda will work with like-minded business partners to develop a new intermodal freight hub (IFH) network to support the flow of cargo as it moves around the supply chain.

“Carriers will have certainty in freight volumes, which will allow them to better utilise assets and make investment decisions to develop an efficient end-to-end import/export freight offering,” said Brownlee.

Contact for further information:

Port of Tauranga
Richard Inder
Merlin Consulting
+64(0)21645643

Kotahi/Coda
Belinda Leslie 
Baldwin Boyle Group 
+64(0)2102857579