HOSPITALITY chain Punch Supply has awarded the contract to run its fleet to contract hire firm Arma. It is the leasing company's largest contract to date.

Arma will supply the 300-vehicle fleet and has already delivered 50 vehicles to the firm, which leases more than 4,000 pubs and bars across the UK. All the vehicles are on a four-year/ 100,000-mile full-maintenance contract.

Samantha Johns, supplies and services procurement manager at Punch, said: 'We can already see that running costs are reducing significantly, not least because we have effectively outsourced the fleet management programme.'