PRESS RELEASE
Palletline are delighted to announce that it has been shortlisted for Team of The Year by the prestigious Motor Transport Awards, whilst members W H Barley and Browns Distribution have been shortlisted for Haulier of The Year. Browns Distribution has also been shortlisted in the Customer Care category.
Motor Transport praise Palletline: “The senior leadership team at Palletline has worked to transform the pallet network, and faced a multitude of challenges, notably realigning territory to avoid service failures, reducing coverage costs and delivering a strategy to manage hub capacities across the network. Each member of the team of eight, the majority of whom joined the network in 2015, was given key objectives and priorities to meet. The success of the team can be seen in the 100% increase in hub capacity, the 50% reduction in the network’s geographical coverage costs and further cost reductions across its operation. Over the course of a year, Palletline said it “re-engineered the business model, re-engaged with its membership and “re-invested shareholders and stakeholders in a plan for the future.” Judges commented on the “amazing goals they’ve achieved over the year”, and said the “hard facts show that the clear and concise strategy” employed by the network was well received and clearly understood by staff, which in turn “produced these fantastic results”.
Motor Transport commends Browns entry: “Staffordshire-based Browns Distribution celebrated its 60th year trading last year. It has expanded from a turnover of £5.8m in the year ending April 2013 to £8m in the year ending April 2015, and has maintained a strong gross margin position throughout that time. Over the past year, Browns has increased its warehousing business, expanding storage space from 6,000 pallets a week to 10,000 – while more than doubling turnover in this division. It has won new customers in local firms Bal Products and Portmeirion Group in the past 12 months. At the same time it has looked to invest in its workforce – employing a full-time driver assessor to focus on safety, compliance, fuel economy and driver awareness and raising its wage bill to ensure that it attracts and retains the highest caliber of employees. Customer care has been a key focus, employing a dedicated customer care manager who sits on the board and reports daily to the MD and leading the customer service team – allowing Browns to focus on increasing customer satisfaction and communication. The judges praised Browns for “a wonderful story” and its “commitment to improve”.
Motor Transport admire the performance of W H Barley: “Family business W H Barley Transport and Storage has traded out of Milton Keynes for the past four decades and prides itself on providing an effective and efficient service. As part of its entry, its customers described the business as having “flexibility and a willingness to serve” as well as delivering “a consistent performance” and developing a “successful partnership”. Part of the reason why it garnered such praise from its customers is the focus on the development of its staff. All employees regularly have their job descriptions reviewed and are appraised to establish performance objectives and training needs; for drivers this is supported by telematics. The company is investing £3m in developing its warehousing capacity. The judges singled out Barley’s “consistent OCRS”, “good carbon footprint measures” and “effective planning and cost control”.