Activa Contracts has won a sole supply, full outsourcing fleet deal with Winterbotham Darby that also sees it take on a consultancy role to the organisation’s cash allowance drivers potentially resulting in them opting for company cars following the introduction of new tax rules.

Redhill-headquartered Winterbotham Darby, which has manufacturing sites operating under its Deli Solutions and Alatoni subsidiaries in Clitheroe and Bicester respectively, operates a 40-strong company car fleet and also has a similar number of employees who have opted for a cash allowance in lieu of a company car.

Winterbotham Darby, a fast-growing food business that predominantly supplies own-label chilled food produced in Europe to the major supermarket chains in the UK, historically relied on a broker to supply company cars on non-maintenance contract hire via a number of leasing providers.

However, Winterbotham Darby conducted a root and branch review of its fleet operation and Activa Contracts won the fully outsourced contract hire with maintenance deal in a competitive tender. It has already delivered three new company cars and has taken over in-life management of the remainder of the fleet until renewal.

Following the comprehensive review, employees across four grades of vehicle benefit from an enhanced company car choice based on “effective rental” after VAT recovery with a CO2 emissions cap – 120g/km for the lowest band and 130g/km for the three remaining bands. The fleet of diesel, petrol and hybrid cars operates over a three-year/60,000-mile replacement cycle.