Smart cities play Clara checks out trucker Sutherlands Transport

afr.com:

Sutherlands Transport, a Cootamundra-based trucking business, has landed on the radar of ambitious infrastructure player Clara, which has proposed a $600 million green hydrogen plant to power trucks plying the Hume.

Sutherlands Transport is located half-way between the Sydney to Melbourne route. Scott McNaughton

Street Talk understands Clara has been running due diligence on Sutherlands with a goal of understanding if the freight carrier is a good strategic fit. Sutherlands owns a fleet of trucks that move freight in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra on behalf of companies in forestry, agribusiness, manufacturing and construction. It also runs an intermodal hub in the area.

It sits at a logistics sweet spot, with Cootamundra being halfway between Sydney and Melbourne – via rail. Sutherland does brisk trade with businesses using the route. Its suitor, Clara, has proposed to construct a large-scale green hydrogen plant at Gundagai on Hume Highway, which connects Sydney to Melbourne.

While it sweats out the details of building its generation capacity, Clara is also looking at vertically integrating into refuelling and fleet operations – which should explain its interest in Sutherlands with its fleet and intermodal hub in Cootamundra.

Sutherlands was founded in 1998 by Anthony Sutherland and has remained in the family’s hands. It brought in about $12 million in contract income in the 2023 financial year, up from $8.2 million in 2019. After paying expenses – wages, insurance, green slips and fuel for its trucks and the like – it had $2.6 million gross profit leaving it with a 21 per cent margin.

Its suitor, Clara, has long talked about an ambitious plan to build new regional smart cities that would be connected to major capitals