H ome Express handles 50 million parcels a year for its
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parent company, mail order giant Littlewoods, and deals with a further 15 million parcels for other clients.
Business Express evolved "off the back" of Home Express and its livery features the same three flying ducks that are found on Home Express vans. The Business Express ducks are not so brightly coloured, however: as befits a business image, they are soberly dressed in black pinstripe suits, ties and bowler hats.
It is a subtle livery; not flamboyant, yet not without humour. It won Commercial Motor's Livery Award for vehicles over 17 tonnes in 1996.
Business Express has been operating for just a few years, but last year it achieved a ,E1.1m profit on turnover of £62m. The profit is all the more significant because service levels were totally reorganised in mid-1995. Until then, Business Express had offered next-day service, while Home Express provided a fiveday service.
The next-day business-to-business market is highly competitive, expensive to run and oversubscribed with providers, while five days for mail order deliveries was probably not quick enough. Courageously, the decision was made to drop both services in their existing form and offer a 48-hour service for both.
The change brought a number of redundancies, but most. of the Business Express controllers, clerks and other staff joined the new combined operation.
Codenamed Cleardown, it works on the basis that every one of the 31 depots in England, Scotland and Wales totally clear and deliver everything on their loading decks by the end of the day.
Big panic
Not surprisingly, the change caused a big panic at first, with extra vans and drivers having to be hired. But it quickly settled down.
Business Express marketing co-ordinator Mike Antwoon says it was not a courageous decision, but a practical one. There were doubters, and some work was lost, but most customers stayed. And since then, traffic has increased because of the realistic and reasonable pricing, coupled with a reliable delivery service.
Concentrating on a 48-hour service also solved that other perennial business parcels problem: the many businesses that wanted (and still want) a 5.30pm pick-up. This can now be handled comfortably, even with, say, a parcel picked up by the Newton Abbot depot intended for delivery by the Inverness depot. The whole 48-hour operation works "extraordinarily well", says Antwoon.
Harrods and Harvey Nicols are among the growing number of well-known users. "We don't claim to be the cheapest, but our mission statement is to offer the best quality and the best value for money," he adds.
The company also has a clear idea of the traffic it doesn't want-"ugly" and the traffic it does—"beautiful". Examples of "beautiful" traffic are mail-order clothing and any type of textiles, boxes of shoes, giftware, fiatpack garden furniture—or a 16kg carton containing 12 bottles of wine. Wine has been a particular success story and customers include Tesco's wine department and Eldridge Pope.
One reason for the service's success is the company's two national sort centres, one serving 16 depots and the other 15. The Oldham sort centre is housed in a former mill and still uses manual handling, while the newer one at Blackrod, Greater Manchester, is only semiautomated, so wine and fragile goods are treated more gently than at the automated hubs of some rivals.
The company has just launched a direct mail campaign to more than 400,000 companies. It has run commercials on Sky TV and Classic FM radio and recently won a Yorkshire award for a previous direct mail campaign. That campaign used three porcelain ducks, similar to those on the skits of its vehicles.
The first duck was sent out in a box, and was followed by a second sent in similar fashion. But instead of the third—orange—duck to complete the set, recipients were sent a letter, part of which read: "Disappointed?.., contact us for an appointment and your third duck." It brought a remarkable 40°. response.
The company's approach in other ways is subtle. Company ties? Yes, but not with ducks on them. They do use the same orange tic as one of the ducks on the Business Express logo, however.
This year, Home Express and Business Express will be at eight different shows and exhibitions, including the giant electrical retailers' show at the NEC and the Harrogate gift fair, both expected to yield business-tobusiness traffic. Other venues include the London wine trade fair, a direct marketing fair and a garden and leisure exhibition. From new customers, the minimum requirement is a monthly account value of ,C250.
The fleet is well turned out—and modern. Of its 2,000 vehicles—mainly LDV vans— none is more than four years old. Total staff is 3,500 and drivers wear a full uniform and look smart. They can be clean shaven or have full beards or moustaches, but not two days' stubble. "We don't want to scare old ladies," says Antwoon. The uniform includes shorts and short-sleeved shirts for the summer.
Staff development The company is keen on staff training and development, and most of its managers began as sorters or drivers. It is looking at the possibility of single status for all staff, and prides itself in looking after people in more ways than just monetary. It plans lo bring in an NVQ qualification for drivers and, unusually these days, offers them training on a skid pan (see CM 7-13 August).
The company views the future with enthusiasm. Business Express work is growing, and the home delivery market is expanding. Subject to Monopolies and Mergers Commission approval, Littlewoods is buying the Freeman's mail order catalogue business, which caters more for people at the younger end of the market, with their higher disposable incomes.
There is an ever-increasing number of specialised mail-order catalogues—the Burton Group is moving into mail order—and everybody is looking at the Internet. "People are getting lazier," says Antwoon, "and if it's not essential for this afternoon, they will use hold delivery. That's us."
by John Aldridge