Diversified South African industrial group Barloworld announced today that its subsidiary - Barloworld Handling - has been awarded a 750 million rand Pathfinder re-let contract by the British Ministry of Defence's Logistics Organisation to own, maintain and repair more than 2,000 items of materials handling equipment.

The eight-year contract covers the total outsourcing of forklift trucks, tractors, trailers and cranes and the skills to maintain them efficiently.

It will include the delivery of some 500 Hyster lift trucks to support the Ministry of Defence's 28 storage and distribution sites across the UK and Germany.

Part of the Ministry of Defence's public private partnership programme, the contract draws upon the expertise within the private sector to inject commercial practices into the provision of materials handling equipment, resulting in a considerable saving to the department, Barloworld said.

Barloworld chief executive officer Tony Phillips said Barloworld would acquire the entire fleet through its associate company, Barloworld Fleet Rentals, and finance the equipment over the term of the contract, maintaining an optimum age profile so that the equipment remains dependable and economic to maintain.

Stringent key performance targets will ensure that fleet management standards confirm with exacting UK Ministry of Defence requirements, he said.

Phillips added: "These contracts are by no means easy to win and even harder to manage, but I believe that the specialist skills and resources which we have made available to the Ministry of Defence will meet and surpass their requirements".

Pathfinder complements a contract of similar size awarded to Barloworld two years ago which now means that the company owns and looks after the UK Ministry of Defence's entire MHE fleet, representing over 4,500 units worldwide across almost 600 establishments.

Lieutenant Colonel David Masters - the UK Ministry of Defence's Project Manager - said: "The contract is an excellent deal for the armed forces and the taxpayer, and will see highly efficient commercial practices being injected into the provision of our materials handling capability which, in turn, will mean more money can be spent directly on front line capability".

With acknowledgements to Jacqueline Mackenzie and Business Day.