Previous leaders of Silk Logistics John Dixon and Sean Williams hope to expand their recently-formed Red Star Transport company
By Ruza Zivkusic-Aftasi | October 25, 2013
Previous leaders of Silk Logistics John Dixon and Sean Williams hope to expand their recently-formed Red Star Transport company of which Bunker Freight Lines is a part of.
The pair left Silk last month after taking over Bunker at an undisclosed price. Chris Pearce (pictured) is still at the helm of Bunker as its managing director.
Dixon spent more than three years within Silk as managing director, with Williams in the role of chief financial officer for five years. The pair commenced operations of Red Star on August 26.
Bunker is the company’s sole division but the pair plans to expand the business into different sectors, Williams says.
The firm, which is headquartered at Derrimut west of Melbourne, has 132 prime movers and around 30 customers on its books.
Dixon and Williams are currently in the process of purchasing 30 new prime movers.
“Silk has been a fascinating exercise in putting five different businesses within transport and logistics sector together,” Williams says.
“It was a difficult time to do that in the wake of the GFC and economic slowdown that followed in Australia. We had our challenges but we managed to put the businesses together and form a strong group, which continued to grow and provide services to customers.
“Our customers have been overwhelmingly supportive of our purchase of the business. We just want to make sure we deliver a quality service for them in a safe and compliant manner that we have always focused on.”
They purchased Bunker at the right time following a ‘difficult year’ within the industry, he adds.
“Hopefully next year is going to be a lot better for the industry. In terms of whether it’s the right time to do Bunker or not, from our perspective we saw that opportunity as being there and decided to pursue it.
“At some stage in future we’ll look at what our branding strategy is but we at the moment are focusing at the peak trading period, making sure we deliver the service to our customers.”
