A fleet of lorries, liveried by Lincolnshire signmaker Allen Signs, has won a prestigious Motor Transport Award.
Branston, which supplies potatoes and freshly prepared foods to retail and catering customers, has become renowned for its humorous and eye-catching liveries designed by Optima Design in Lincoln.
Branston’s series of 14 liveries fought off stiff competition from other finalists Grocontinental, Spar UK and White Logistics & Storage to win the Livery of the Year category.
More than 1,500 guests attended the Motor Transport Awards ceremony at Grosvenor House in London which celebrates the achievements of the industry and recognises innovation, outstanding service, efficiency and quality.
The awards, which are considered to be the Oscars of the transport world, are judged by an independent panel of experts drawn from the industry.
As well as Tate That! – a design suggested by local schoolgirl Chloe Dearden to coincide with Take That's reunion tour of 2011 – Branston's other liveries include You're the one that I want - Potatoes with the X-factor! and I'm a potato - get me out of here!
The designs for the 12 metre long refrigerated trailers were printed on Allen Signs’ JV33 wide format inkjet printer using Metamark MD5.
MD of Allen Signs David Allen explained: “We survey each trailer and send the information and drawings to Optima to prepare the scaled visuals.
“Once these have been approved we produce test prints and then the job goes into production. The designs are printed on Metamark MD5 which always gives great results and enables us to achieve a really strong and consistent colour. The images are over-laminated in a matching material.”
The installation takes place at hauliers Cartwright Brothers’ premises.
“We work around their schedules, going in once the early loads have been sent out after 10am and finishing at 3.30pm before the other loads return in the afternoon,” said David.
“Working in this way it takes our two-man team one and a half to two days on average to livery each lorry and we liaise with the client and the designer to ensure that once the trailer is taken off the road the downtime is minimal.”
