The Petit Forestier Group is pursuing its international growth strategy. Underpinned by the quality of its service and its experience on the ground, our Liverpool branch has been the driving force behind this new expansion. The Dublin region is home to more than a quarter of the Irish population, providing a gateway to a new and highly promising market.

After five months of operations, the new branch already manages a large fleet of vehicles, representing a further step forward in our European development.

For a number of years now the Petit Forestier Group has been committed to sustainable development; offering its customers vehicles that already comply with the Euro 5 standard is a logical consequence of that commitment.

In fact the new standard will only come into force from 1st October 2009, but innovation is the rule at Petit Forestier, so there was no waiting, and the vehicle fleet is already fully compliant with the Euro 5 standard.

The Euro standards were first applied in the early Nineties, and pollutant emissions from new vehicles have been much reduced since then. The fact that the newest lorries (which are Euro 4 compliant) emit about 80% less pollution than 15 years ago is grounds for optimism… but we have to keep pushing, which is why Petit Forestier is pursuing its efforts and involvement on behalf of the environment.

This French association brings together public and private bodies involved in the global logistical network, with the aim of promoting and implementing operational solutions that will bring environmental impacts under control, and, in the end, improve national and international decision-maker awareness.

At the “urban logistics: noise pollution and nocturnal deliveries” workshop, the Petit Forestier Group and its subsidiary Lecapitaine took a very significant role, alongside the Ville de Paris (Paris city government), the Carrefour Group and STEF-TFE (the refrigerated logistics company that handles Carrefour's deliveries). The aim was to design a nocturnal deliveries experiment using low noise-emission equipment.

Petit Forestier contributed technical and financial support by providing a 21 pallet multi-temperature refrigerated transporter which had been entirely re-tooled to make it as quiet as possible. The vehicle proposed met with the aim of noise emissions lower than 60 dB and the results achieved met with unanimous approval.

Petit Forestier's initiatives towards sustainable development are not always visible to the general public, but they are numerous. They help us to be innovative, and always go the extra step in raising the quality of service that we offer our clients.

Petit Forestier Group has just completed the acquisition of Turin-based company Fuel Only, Italian market leader in refrigerated vehicle hire; in doing so it has gained 7 new offices, in Turin, Genoa, Vicenza, Pistoia, Rome, Catania and Elmas.

Apart from a business approach much like our own, this Italian company's structure bears many similarities to Petit Forestier: it offers its customers an overall service dedicated to refrigeration and operates with a network of offices throughout Italy.

This acquisition enables us to strengthen our international product offering and represents an important step in our European development.

From 21 February to 1 March 2009, with the support of the International Agriculture Show and in partnership with Petit Forestier, ANDES, Association Nationale de Développement Epiceries Solidaires (national development association for socially committed groceries), will be distributing between 27,000 and 30,000 litres of milk to the most underprivileged inhabitants of the Ile-de-France (Greater Parisian region), through the Aide Alimentaire l'Ile-de-France (food aid for Ile-de-France) associations.

In fact, there will be more than 200 cows at the show that will be milked twice a day. The volume of milk is estimated at more than 4,000 litres per day, which means 40,000 litres of milk for the whole show. The milk collected is being pasteurised on-site, then packaged in cartons marked "International Agriculture Show".

ANDES is collecting and delivering the cartons with the help of the Petit Forestier Group, which, on this occasion, is loaning a refrigerated lorry with a visual display specially prepared for this event. Each day, the cartons of milk are being collected and distributed with the lorry bearing the colours of the operation, in the various bases of the aid associations participating in the operation, as well as in socially committed groceries of the Ile-de-France.

This initiative is very much part of Petit Forestier's sustainable development policy and reinforces, with a humorous touch, what it is doing in this area.

With 2,098 exhibitors and no less than 141,380 visitors, Sirha 2009 was the ideal opportunity for Petit Forestier to present its multi-product offer and to make some quality contacts, up by 50% compared to 2007 !

The Petit Forestier stand was perfect for the presentation of the full range of products and services. The "Fofos", Petit Forestier's mascots, provided a lively presence at the stand and also met with great success in and around the aisles of the Show.

Our sincere thanks to all those who dropped in to see us.

This new logo, created to federate the different entities of the Petit Forestier group, is an important symbol for the men and women working in our company. It represents the culmination of many years' work and signals the maturity that all of our subsidiaries and brands have reached.

It highlights a significant stage in our brand strategy and the positioning of our offer. For three years now, Petit Forestier Group has commercialised a multi-product offer - Vehicles, Storage and Display units and Containers - without ever losing its unique focus: the cold chain and nothing but the cold chain!

It is firmly based on our acquired skills, graphically reflecting the "green stripes" that have, from the very start, established and accompanied our brand recognition, without breaking away from this, in a move that symbolises our determination to constantly advance!

Petit Forestier is exhibiting at the IFE (International Food and Drink Event), in ExCel-London, on 15-18 March.

Our stand, number S2719, is located in the frozen food section, and will display some of our vehicles. Petit Forestier representatives will be available to entertain any question and provide you with information on quotation requests.