Some fleets are born out of business ambition. More often, a sheer love of trucks is the primary impetus, but in the case of Timaru-headquartered Coolpak Coolstores it was frustration at not being able to offer customers the level of service he thought they needed that prompted owner Sid McAuley to invest in in-house transport.

And though the company’s now 18-strong fleet is small by most fleet standards and represents a minor part of overall investment, it plays a crucial part in offering customers an extra layer of flexibility.

Adding a transport component to the coolstore business wasn’t too much of a challenge to Sid, because he had previously owned Hilton Haulage, before selling that company to his brother Peter and a consortium of company owner-drivers in 1994.

Coolpak had been bought in the late 1980s and had been run alongside Hiltons until the sale. During the subsequent decade, Coolpak was also a joint-venture partner in a parallel operation, Hilton Coolstores, eventually buying out its partners in that company in the early 2000s and merging Hilton Coolstores into the main operation.

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