Supply chain solutions giant Unipart saw a “strong year of growth” in 2023, delivering a record £1bn in turnover, the company announced this week.

Announcing its annual results for the year to 31 December, Unipart revealed that group turnover increased 14% to £1,047.9m (2022: £917.3m), with underlying group profit before interest and tax rising to £21.7m (2022: £12.2m).

Oxford-based Unipart provides logistics and supply chain services across 27 countries and counts Airbus, Volkswagen, Vodafone, Three and the NHS among its clients.

The firm is majority owned by its 12,000 workers, making it one of the UK’s largest employee-owned firms. 

In its report to the results, Unipart said that the group had delivered growth across its seven market sectors, working with leading global and UK customers.

In the UK, Unipart renewed logistics contracts with a number of major companies during the year, including Volkswagen Group UK and G.Network. It also extended partnerships with telecommunications giants Vodafone and Three UK.

Unipart also mobilised a major new contract with Airbus in the year to provide differentiated logistics solutions across a range of areas, with the Airbus team among 3,000 people to join Unipart in 2023.

Darren Leigh, Unipart chief executive, said: “I am proud of the progress we’ve made in accelerating our growth in 2023. It was a strong year for us – surpassing £1bn in revenue and materially strengthening our profitability.

“In the face of ongoing market headwinds and external disruption to global supply chains, Unipart’s supply chain solutions and performance improvement technologies are needed by our customers more than ever before.

”We are uniquely placed to offer deep supply chain expertise coupled with delivery of high performance and value for our customers. I would like to thank our colleagues for their dedication and hard work, and our customers and partners for their ongoing support and commitment.

“With a clear growth strategy across our seven core market sectors, a robust order book and a talented, committed team of experts, I am confident in the outlook for 2024 and our next chapter of growth.

“This is an exciting year for Unipart – we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Unipart brand. While much has changed over the last half century – today we stand as a diversified business of over 12,000 colleagues operating in 21 countries – what has always remained at Unipart’s core is our commitment to serving our customers better than anyone else.”

John Neill, Unipart executive chairman, said: “This year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Unipart brand and the guiding philosophy established in 1974: “To understand the real and perceived needs of our customers better than anyone else and serve them better than anyone else.”

”Living by this philosophy has enabled us to continually reinvent our business to participate in the future and continuing to do so is more important than ever.

“We need to keep growing in a faster changing world which in some respects is hard to calibrate so we must and will embrace the multitude of Generative AI tools to enable us to create innovative products, services and solutions for our company and our customers.

”I have been very encouraged by Darren’s personal commitment to the philosophy and unambiguous commitment to The Unipart Way which continues to be our source of competitive advantage.

“Unipart pioneered the stakeholder management philosophy in Britain and I’m grateful to all of our stakeholders, particularly to our customers and all my fellow employees for their engagement, support and commitment.”

 

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