New truck fleet proved very a-peeling for banana firm

Pratt’s Bananas, in Laporte Way, stood down its 15 Mercedes-Benz Actros and replaced them with 20 more powerful models.

Distribution manager David Frost said: “We were previously running at 8.7 mpg but the fleet average is now sitting around 9 mpg.

“Given that the vehicles are fully freighted at 44 tonnes most of the time, that’s a figure we’re very happy with.”

The family firm, which is Britain’s biggest, privately-owned importer and distributor of bananas, is a long-standing operator of Mercedes-Benz trucks. Managing Director Robert Wells bought his first in 1980.

Operating round-the-clock and stopping only on Christmas Day, its Actros will each cover 180,000 km a year. The new trucks have long distance sleeper cabs and were supplied by S & B Commercials, of Hatfield.

The vehicles collect fruit arriving at the ports of Dover and Portsmouth from the likes of Costa Rica, The Dominican Republic and The Ivory Coast. They bring it back to Pratt’s ripening chambers in Luton – the process for bananas can take up to six days – and then deliver it to regional distribution centres of major supermarkets.

SH Pratt & Co was founded in 1947 by Robert ‘Bob’ Wells, father of the current MD, and now has more than 300 employees. In 2011 it launched a logistics service covering ambient, chilled and frozen products.