Motor Transport Awards 2021 shortlist: Business Excellence Award – sponsored by Hireco

C&D South West

C&D Transport was founded in 1987 and has been providing quality distribution to clients for over 30 years. Based in Chard, Somerset, it offers a guaranteed 24-hour delivery service to every UK postcode every day, with 96% of the business being palletised distribution for customers within a 40-mile radius of its HQ.

MD Lorna Hammond is the third-generation leader of C&D and has followed in her father’s and late grandfather’s footsteps, providing quality transport and logistics services across the UK, Europe and beyond while being a major supporter of the local Somerset economy.

The company maintained a strong financial performance throughout the pandemic and used its agility and adaptability to help keep the country moving. It can also boast excellent testimonials on Google and Trustpilot and is committed to minimising its environmental impact.

The judges said: “The company has made a good financial recovery. Turnover was down but that’s understandable because of Covid.”

DPD UK

DPD says continuous improvement is an intrinsic part of its DNA, helping the parcel giant double its revenues since 2014. Its exceptional financial performance also includes 11 consecutive years of profit growth, driven by high levels of customer loyalty.

To handle the 2020 surge in home delivery volumes, DPD re-engineered crucial processes in its AM depot operations and managed operational KPIs more rigorously than ever to produce record high service levels of 99.99%. Despite the challenges of Covid, DPD also accelerated its commitment to being the UK’s most sustainable carrier.

Nearly 70% of DPD’s top 100 customers have now been with it for five years or more and the company handled 3.5 years of projected growth in just nine months during 2020.

The judges said: “They reacted so quickly to the pandemic it was astonishing. This is a really outstanding business. The company is so impressive and a lot of work has gone into it.”

Expect Distribution

Expect Distribution has an outstanding financial performance record with a 68% improvement in net profit in 2020. It is a solutions-based logistics provider and ranks customer care as its priority.

As a family-owned and run business, it says people are key to its success and it invests in bringing in outstanding industry talent, developing existing employees to their full potential. In 2020 it reviewed its employee benefits, investing £200,000 in a new improved package.

Its business strategy includes achieving organic growth in turnover of 10% to 15% year on year and increasing profit margin to over 10% by leveraging cost against revenue. It is constantly targeting growth and new business in its contracts and warehousing divisions while looking to restrict growth but increase margin in general distribution.

The judges said: “This is a very buoyant business that's going places.”

Hermes

At the start of the pandemic, Hermes had to radically adapt to ensure the safety of its staff and customers. Meanwhile, parcel volumes soared to unprecedented levels.

Major investment in people, technology and infrastructure gave it the capacity for the Christmas peak, and the flexibility to continually adapt to the unique and changing needs of customers and retail clients. Hermes delivered its five-year growth plan in just five months and delivered 630 million parcels in 2020/21.

Hermes UK’s strongest year on record was 2020/21. Income was £1.4bn and profit was over £100m, much of which will be reinvested into the business to help hit targets. Last August, Hermes UK benefited from significant investment by global private equity firm Advent International, which acquired a 75% stake.

The judges said: “The Hermes entry ticked all the boxes. They’ve put their money where their mouth is with the gas artics.”

Wren Kitchens

Wren Kitchens quickly embraced last year’s challenges to efficiently implement Covid-safe procedures and employ and train 123 new delivery drivers to cope with the spike in orders. The retail giant safely delivered 96,296 kitchens and increased turnover by 18% when non-food retail sales fell 5%.

The company has achieved consecutive year-on-year growth (turnover: £77,700 in 2009 to £703m in 2020) and in 2020 delivered 99.95% of kitchens on time and in full. Efficiency savings amounted to £2.8m while it achieved a 33% reduction in road miles through its innovative TripleTrunking strategy. Last year also saw Wren open the UK’s largest IT centre and 12 new showrooms (total 102), providing hundreds of new jobs nationally. It also opened its first showroom in the USA.

More than 80% of Wren Logistics’ management have been promoted from within while the company also offers training, personal development and apprenticeship opportunities.

The judges said: “They reacted very fast to Covid and their financial performance is amazing.”