A significant number of UK international hauliers are flagging out
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to escape spiralling UK running costs—but a foreign-based distribution outfit is pouring money into its UK operation. Does it know something we don't?
erman-owned multinational distribution company Hellmann Worldwide Logistics is bucking the UK trend by investing heavily in promoting its interests in this country. It's just opened a i12in European hub at Fradley Park, near Lichfield, and is actively seeking to expand its activities in the UK, where it already has a turnover of L55m. The hub, which will act as a base for trade to and from the Continent, is claimed to be unique in that it has computer-controlled pallet and parcel sorting facilities in the same building. Its construction confirms Hellmann's commitment to this country; it started trading here in 1988 after buying the Mitchell Cotts freight forwarding operation.
Mel Needley, UK managing director (parcels and European services) says: "At the moment Hellmann is very much a sleeping giant. The question we are asked most often is who the hell is Hellmann? But we are about to change all that starting with the high-profile launch of our Fradley Park depot."
Three phases
Fradley Park is only the first of three phases in an expansion programme which could more than double the company's parcel handling capacity and will also increase the throughout of pallets.
Hellmann is keen to develop an adjacent three-acre site to provide warehousing for clients. Paul Goldsbrough, another of the firm's triumvirate of UK managing directors, is responsible for sales and marketing.
"We are talking to a number of potential clients about providing them with storage space," he explains.
"The advantage to them would be that they could take telephone orders as late as eight or nine o'clock at night and still get the goods on our overnight delivery service as they are
being held close to our centre of operations."
The firm has also developed a double-deck trailer to handle mixed loads of parcels and pallets. It has an overall height of 4.83m; access to the upper deck is via a ramp or an interior tail. lift. The ramp lifts up and pallets can also be stored on top of the lift, which can be locked in position flush with the lower floor. The weight of the extra deck and equipment is not a problem because the average weight of a mixed load is only 12 tonnes.
Hellmann operates as a stand-alone operator in the UK; all of its UK vehicles are registered here.
Mel Needley says that Hellmann's size puts it in a strong position when it comes to negotiating prices for fuel and new vehicles. But he adds: "We will have to look at the fact that buying fuel here costs 30% more than on the Continent. This is not a problem for vehicles that carry out European trade; they simply fill up before coming back into this country. However it is a problem for our domestic trade and this is one of the next items we will look at."
Around 40% of the firm's business is handled by owner-drivers but there's no problem recruiting drivers, partly because several local major employers have closed or moved, and
partly because of the high standard of facilities at Fradley Park such as showers, toilets and cantee.ns for employed and visiting drivers.
British Empire
The UK is important to Hellmann because, despite its German origins, the company's major operational centres are in what used to be the British Empire including Australia, South Africa and Hong Kong, and also in the United States.
When it comes to expansion in the UK, worldwide chief executive and co-owner Jost Hellmann makes no bones about the company's goal: "To be a major player you have to be one of the top io operators It is our aim to be in the top io in each country we operate in, including Britain."
Given the rate that the company has been growing here over the past io years a top io place is realistic—and then no-one will be asking...who the hell is Hellmann?
The Building
III the impressim promises at Findley Park was kilt by contractor Willmott Dixon in just 12 months based on a design that includes a curved office frontage similar to the firm's global HO in Miami.
The building includes a 250m-long warehouse with 10,38302 of floor space. It has four side loading bays and 98 loading doors with dock-leveller units to suit British and Continental trucks.
A tracking system for the pallethandling machine is built into the floor, parcels and pallets are sorted by computer-read barcodes to guide them to waiting vehicles.
The 3,000m2 of office accommodation includes rest areas for drivers and warehouse staff—it will also act as the company's UK headquarters.
Facties for employed and visiting drivers are segregated but identical, and they're built to a high standard with worker's toilets being exactly the same as those provided for the directors.
The parcel handling and pallet moving equipment was installed by German contractor Schmitt tugen. It can currently handle 6,000 pallets and 45,000 parcels on a six-hour night shift. But these rates have already been more than doubled for short periods and there are plans to increase the capacity to 95,000 parcels a night by adding more overhead sorting lines under the same roof.
The Company
• Hellmann was formed in Osnabrlick, northern Germany in 1071, carting fabrics to and from local textile mills. It was renamed Hellmann Worldwide Logistics in July this year and remains privately owned.
Last year turnover hit £1bn, and co-owner and chief executive Jost Hellmann expects that figure to be exceeded this year The company employs 5,850 staff and operates from 368 locations throughout the world.
Most of the company's overseas activities involve partnerships with local hauliers, although this method of operating is increasingly being questioned by same clients in the US. Jost Hellmann explains: Some of our US customers are arguing that because we tend to work through partnering arrangements we don't have enough control. However, I would argue that we have the ultimate control because if our chosen partner does not measure up to our standards it is out."
The UK is one of only 22 countries where Hellmann operates directly. It employs 517 people over here; last year's £55m turnover was generated from three main activities: air freight forwarding, ocean forwarding and European road services. The haulage of perishable goods is another target for growth.
There are three hubs: at Frac!ley Park, near Lichfield; Bradford; and Rainham, Essex, There are three other major depots including one near Heathrow, and a network of 55 parcels offices.