Waverley picks up the pieces after oil inferno

by Tony Halstead and The PMA Team

Waverley TBS staff were working around the clock this week to maintain supplies to customers after one of its depots was badly damaged in the oil refinery explosion that rocked Hemel Hempstead on Sunday.

The drinks wholesaler's fire-ravaged Punchbowl Park depot, which is just 400 yards from the giant Buncefield oil complex, contained an estimated £10m of Christmas stock.

Deliveries and services normally handled by the depot have been transferred to four other Waverley sites. The company is confident that it has contingency plans in place to reduce disruption to a minimum.

A new depot in Luton opened at 9am on Wednesday morning to help maintain supplies.

Waverley said it believed it could meet its trade commitments despite a key component in its storage and distribution network being knocked out.

Waverley TBS boss Jeff Jamet said: 'We have had fantastic support and solidarity from our suppliers and customers.

'We already have suppliers in Italy and France re-supplying and customers have told us they understand there will be some slight order delays with some out-of-sync by a day.'

Jamet said that management and staff have been working since early on Sunday on contingency plans covering logistics, systems, supplies and communication.

He added that none of the depot's 150 staff, except security officers, were on site at the time of the explosion.

'The silver lining is that this occurred on a Sunday morning - midweek there might have been a number of casualties,' said Jamet.

Waverley has lost around 30 trucks in the explosion. But it is hopeful that much of its stock may have survived the giant blasts of Sunday.

The site stocks predominantly wine and spirits for supply to customers based in the south of England.

Waverley depots at Birmingham, Felling, Dorchester and Dagenham are now taking on the Punchbowl workload.

The administration and telesales operations carried out at the depot have been transferred to Staines.