ATL is embarking on its most exciting journey to date with a drive to double the size of the business in the next five years and set new benchmarks for customer service and efficiency.
With a £multi-million investment in its new Midlands Hub at Foston, near Derby, and state-of-the-art management systems, the company is well on its way to achieving its objectives with a growing customerbase of leading names turning to ATL for bespoke logistics solutions.
Spearheading the growth is new managing director Jon Ward whose vision is for ATL to become a standard bearer for the industry whilst keeping the approachability and flexibility the company has built it’s name on.
“The precedent for growth is there,” he explains. “In the last three years alone we’ve gone from 500,000 sq. feet to 1.2m sq. feet of warehousing with a corresponding increase in staff and vehicles.”
“But whilst size and facilities are obviously important, it’s the way we do business that really sets us apart with our growth over the last few years being very much demand-led.
“We are building ever-stronger relationships with big name companies such as JCB, Nestle, Pirelli and Trelleborg because we take a genuinely partnership approach with regard to their requirements and are prepared to offer them an individual solution specific to their needs.”
Typical of this approach is that whilst the new Foston development could have housed 32,000 pallet spaces, this was kept to 15,000 on the food side with another 12,000 for non-food because this fitted in better with the customers’ specified use.
ATL’s resources are increasingly impressive with the predominantly high bay warehousing serviced by a fleet of nearly 100 commercial vehicles and 150 trailers.
Whilst it operates a main warehouse at Carlisle and other established facilities at strategic locations, it is the new development at Foston that provides the opportunity to lift the company’s game significantly, Jon Ward believes. “Foston has not just added another 190,000 sq. ft of high rack warehousing to our business, it’s allowed us to adopt the latest warehouse management systems to improve efficiency and the overall customer experience.
“Modern air-conditioned offices have also allowed us to improve working conditions and we have increased local employment by 20% from 200 to 240 people at the site.” But Jon is more than aware that building infrastructure is only part of the equation in a fast growing company.
“We want to build trust across all stakeholders, invest in quality of service, give customers peace of mind and conduct business in a friendly, attentive manner – that’s what really sets one business apart from another and it’s where much of our focus lies.
“We’re quite prepared to look outside of our immediate industry and see who is doing the best job in their sectors and learn from them. For example, if we can bring ideas across from a company like John Lewis, we will. We want to be ‘best in class’ and people are critically important in this.”
ATL Transport Academy Launched
ATL head of distribution Leighton Wood agrees, saying training and development is likely to have an increasingly important part to play in the company achieving its goals. “It’s not just about building skills, it’s ensuring everybody understands what we’re all about and feels part of the team.
“We want people to feel they have a real future at ATL and that they can grow within the organisation.” With this in mind, Leighton has been instrumental in launching ATL’s Transport Academy designed to give those interested in a career in logistics a leg up as well as helping the company grow its own foundation of drivers.
“The ATL Transport Academy provides drivers with a two week training programme to gain experience in different teams, as well as the chance to shadow a driver, practice shunting into bays and take a driver compliance test, before given employment.
“Many newly qualified drivers find it difficult to get jobs without experience so this is a fantastic way to give drivers the experience they need and the chance to work for a growing company. “We can also use the scheme to offer experience of working in various roles in a transport office and develop specific skills such as logistics planning.”
Top slot in industry efficiency award
ATL has also achieved another first recently by winning the prestigious ‘Top Liner’ award from Palletline, the UK’s leading palletised freight distribution network, after consistently exceeding performance targets for the last six months and achieving 100% efficiency in key categories.
According to ATL network and cross dock operations manager Shaun Deakin, the company has been steadily climbing the rankings in recent months.
“The Midlands Hub has acted as a catalyst for many parts of the business and given us all the realisation that we can achieve the highest benchmarks for operational efficiency possible and this is starting to become very much part of our culture.
“The award is based on consistent delivery of a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) over a six month period. These are designed to illustrate where critical areas of the operation are so you can see where you sit with regard to other operators in the network and where improvements can be made.
“We all took time to study the Palletline charter and, instead of throwing everyone in at the deep end, we defined the structure needed to deliver the best performance, invested in the necessary training and split the team into areas focusing on their strengths.
“Although delighted to have reached joint top spot out of nearly 80 companies taking part, I think we are all pretty amazed at how quickly the team pulled together, took on the challenge and came out on top.” ATL’s Carlisle depot is also on track for the same success after exceeding its own KPI target at the start of 2019.
According to managing director Jon Ward, whilst palletised goods are only part of the full distribution solutions provided by the company, the ‘Top Liner’ achievement sets a precedent for all in the business.
“I am absolutely convinced we have the people, skills and resources to become a top player in the UK transport and logistics industry and we’re all focused on achieving that.
“We’ve made some big investments recently and these together with the quality of our people are allowing us to develop the company significantly with many new business opportunities in the pipeline.
“The Palletline success is important not just because it places us at the top of a very competitive sector, it also shows an aspiring company like ours can be ‘best in class’ in key areas and take the fight to much bigger and better known organisations.”
“These are exciting times. We have a fantastic foundation to start from, a real vision of how we can take this business model further in the future and a great team to make it happen. I think we’re only just beginning to realise the full potential we have.”
ATL
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