Peel Ports Group appoints Nigel Kent as Head of Group Strategic Projects

Peel Ports Group has appointed Nigel Kent as its first Head of Project Cargo as it strengthens its offering to meet rising demand across this sector.

Nigel is appointed as the UK’s second largest port operator responds to the shifting dynamics of the energy transition and major UK infrastructure projects, which are reshaping the project cargo market and logistics for the transport of large, complex components across the country.

Nigel moves from a Head of Commercial role at Peel Ports Logistics, the group’s shipping and freight forwarding business. Rather than customers dealing with a different contact at each port, Nigel now leads one team across the port group’s network, giving them a single point of contact from first enquiry to final delivery.

Nigel is based at Ellesmere Port with a national remit. He first joined Peel Ports Logistics – formerly Quality Freight UK – in 2010 as a Commercial Manager, before becoming Head of Commercial in 2021.

With over a decade of experience in project management and client growth across all logistics disciplines, Nigel brings a deep understanding of the business and an eagerness to lead Peel Ports Group’s project cargo ambitions.

Nigel, whose official title is Head of Group Strategic Projects (Project Cargo) at Peel Ports Group, said:

Previously project cargo used to be handled on a port by port basis, but bringing it together under one team gives customers a single point of contact, gives a clearer line of communication throughout projects and highlights synergies across our UK ports.

The energy transition market is changing what moves through UK ports, whether it be power station components or renewables infrastructure, and these schemes are planned many years in advance. We're already working with clients on projects that won't begin until the end of the decade. Getting involved early is where we are able to add the most value to the supply chain.

Handling project cargo depends on physical capacity such as laydown land, quay strength, heavy lift craneage and suitable road access, interfaced with the highways authority and traffic policing, which Peel Ports Group offers across all its sites. King George V Dock at Clydeport in Glasgow has handled components for more than 1,200 wind turbines since 2005, around 35% of Scotland’s installed wind capacity, and processed over 1,000 components in 2024 alone.

The group recently added a £3 million egress road there to move oversized loads more efficiently. In 2025 it delivered a 178-tonne transformer and cooler to the Deeside Converter Station for National Grid’s £54 billion transmission upgrade, among the heaviest abnormal loads ever to move through a UK port. The port operator also announced plans last year to develop a new deep water terminal and 350 metres of extra quay at Port of East Anglia to further support the delivery of the group’s project cargo.

David Huck, Chief Operating Officer at Peel Ports Group, said:

Demand for project cargo is rising fast, driven by the energy transition and the wave of concurrent infrastructure projects planned for the UK. Our customers move some of the largest and most complex cargoes in the country, and they need one team, with a UK-wide geographical reach, that understands the whole journey, not a different contact at every port.

Nigel has spent over 16 years building those relationships with clients. Bringing our project cargo work under his leadership means we can plan earlier and faster and give developers a single point of contact across our vast UK network of ports and terminals. It’s the right move at the right time, and Nigel is the perfect person to lead it.