Carlsberg Britvic is adding 57 new rigid trucks to its UK delivery fleet. The 26-tonne vehicles come from bodybuilder Bevan Group, built on Mercedes-Benz Actros 2530 chassis supplied by Midlands Truck & Van.
The trucks carry bespoke curtainside bodies designed to do two jobs at once: traditional pub drops and a growing share of palletised freight. Each one is fitted with six access ladders, kerb ramps, safety lighting, and Dhollandia cantilever tail lifts with custom safety gates. Nine different curtain designs showcase brands across the Carlsberg Britvic portfolio.
The order joins a fleet of roughly 350 heavy vehicles and 120 trailers that move beer, soft drinks, and CO2 gas canisters to pubs, hotels, and restaurants nationwide. It also follows January’s addition of 37 new trailers from Tiger Trailers, another sign Carlsberg Britvic is renewing both ends of its logistics chain: the primary network that feeds regional hubs, and the secondary fleet that reaches individual venues.
Bevan sales director Roy Shelton said the relationship with Carlsberg Britvic began during the Covid pandemic, when chassis shortages pushed the drinks company toward used vehicles fitted with Bevan bodies. Those bodies held up so well past eight years old that Carlsberg Britvic’s fleet team invited Bevan to bid on new vehicles instead of testing a cheaper supplier.
Carlsberg Britvic national fleet manager Kevin O’Rourke said build quality and a collaborative approach to spec development were the deciding factors.
For a bodybuilder marking its 50th anniversary this year, the order extends a working relationship built on eight years of prior use rather than a fresh tender win. Drinkabl Africa’s reporting on Nigerian Breweries traced similar ground: distribution infrastructure decisions often outlast the brand campaigns built on top of them. The same logic runs through Drinkabl Africa’s coverage of Africa’s beer sector, where fleet and route-to-market investment separate operators built for scale from those still chasing it.
The new trucks carry Bevan’s eight-year body warranty and will finish rolling out across Carlsberg Britvic’s UK network before the end of 2026, the next stage in a fleet renewal that started with trailers and is now moving into the vehicles that reach the pub door.
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