Richie O’Flynn, co-owner and commercial director for South Coast Logistics, runs the largest provider of tank container logistics and transportation services in Ireland. Now he’s aiming to grow internationally with a new $5.5 million “inland port terminal” that offers tank storage, heating, cleaning, maintenance, and repairs in one fully integrated location.
The family-owned bulk logistics company took a key step forward late last month, securing planning permission from Ireland’s Health & Safety Authority to develop 4 acres of land in Dublin as an “Upper Tier Seveso” site capable of storing flammable liquids, toxic gasses, and other hazardous materials; and O’Flynn already is talking to at least two tank truck carriers headquartered across the pond about a collaboration, while also planning to attend National Tank Truck Carriers’ Tank Truck Week in Charlotte, North Carolina.
TTW 2024 runs Sept. 29-Oct. 2 at the Charlotte Convention Center.
“Given Ireland’s status as an island nation, we face unique challenges, such as reliance on shipping schedules, weather disruptions, and customs complexities,” O’Flynn told Bulk Transporter. “The new inland port terminal will allow our customers, including tank container operators and multinational manufacturing companies, to adopt a proactive approach to stock management, ensuring consistent production and business continuity.
“This development will solidify South Coast’s role as the leading versatile and dedicated multi-faceted service provider in Ireland.”
Irish ISO tank specialist
O’Flynn’s father founded South Coast in 1975, so he and his two brothers, who now share ownership of the company, are preparing to celebrate their 50th anniversary next year. The ISO tank container logistics and transportation specialist today provides dedicated services to major chemical and pharmaceutical shippers from four locations in Cork City, Dublin, Fermoy, and Galway City.
South Coast employs 148 people and generates annual revenues in excess of $23 million.
The company currently stores 190 tank containers in Fermoy for major operators, including Bulkhaul, Hoyer, and Katoen Natie. Over-the-road assets include 290 chassis trailers and 40 tank trailers for liquid chemical, fuel, and food-grade products. In addition to providing ISO tank services, South Coast executes over 30,000 hauls annually, with its tanker fleet collecting 29 million gallons of milk each year; and delivering aviation fuel to airports, and diesel and gasoline to 240 stations across Ireland.
“We operate ‘indigenous’ transport contracts here in Ireland, which blend with the operations we carry out as the largest tank container [TC] facilitator in Ireland, providing transport, lifting, storage, heating, washing, maintenance, repairs, and chassis hire,” O’Flynn said. “In recent years, with the implementation of Brexit, and the difficulties international shippers have faced, we’ve contracted directly with pharma multinationals like Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Thermo Fisher. We now operate for these multinationals as an outside warehouse for the storage of their prime materials in TCs. This ensures they always have a stock of various products on the island, enabling production continuity.”
One-stop tank logistics shop
Now South Coast is at a crossroads, O’Flynn shared.
The business is growing in line with the bulk hauler’s five-year plan, but storage capacity is tightening, its multi-faceted capabilities are spread across four locations, and it’s using a third-party facility for washing out tanks. So O’Flynn wants to expand South Coast’s terminal near Rosemount Logistics Park—if the right partner helps bring his dream to fruition. “South Coast is highly regarded countrywide for its efficiency, flexibility, and ingenuity, and I believe we can take our model, with everything we do, and replicate it as part of a larger group across England, Europe, and the U.S.,” he said.
South Coast owns 10 acres of land off Ballycoolin Road but currently utilizes only 2 for its Dublin operation. The planned expansion would double existing development and add two bays for cleaning tank containers and trailers, and three for maintenance and repairs, along with offices, heating infrastructure, and parking. It also would include enough space to stage 220 20-ft. equivalent units (TEUs) less than 10 miles from Dublin Port, whose state-owned authority built two inland facilities for boxes but has not addressed the need for off-port hazmat container storage, O’Flynn said.
“It’s a unique site that would be the first of its kind in Ireland,” he concluded.
“Most importantly, it would provide international TC operators an alternative to the only tank-cleaning facility currently operating in the Dublin region.”
