LinQ Alliance is a national logistics service provider focusing on supplying cost effective distribution, warehousing, added value services and supply chain management solutions. Formed in 2003, it brings together 25 leading regional transport and distribution companies in a consortium offering an alternative option to third party logistics. LinQ Alliance creates innovative, appropriate, individual packages centred on cost savings, communication, customer service, transport synergy and optimisation. In 2008 and beyond, LinQ Alliance looks to build on its logistics-related services, including worldwide freight forwarding, home delivery and pallet distribution. Bob Terris, Chairman of LinQ Alliance Ltd and Managing Director of LinQ Alliance member company Meachers Group Holdings, spoke to Warehouse & Logistics News.
Bob Terris started working for Meachers in 1962 as a traffic clerk, when it was a family-owned company moving coal in autumn and winter and mixed goods in warmer months. Bob is now the major shareholder in Meachers Group Holdings, today a multi-million business with two trading divisions, Meachers Transport and Oast Agencies.
Bob’s son Stuart, a chartered accountant, is Meachers’ Operations Director and Deputy MD, but from Bob’s visible passion for the business, Stuart’s succession is still some way off.
LinQ Alliance’s members operate a total 47 depots across mainland UK, serving Britain and Ireland, plus air and sea freight to the rest of the world. Its 25 members turn over more than £300m per year, though not all contracts are billed through the LinQ system. They have over 4,000 personnel and 2,000 vehicles, and 2,276,000 sq. ft. of ambient and 10,000 sq. ft. temperature-controlled warehousing.
LinQ Alliance’s operations offices are in Derby, also home to a Meachers-owned depot for cross docking and warehousing, which is open to LinQ members on a shared user basis. LinQ Alliance’s most senior permanent officer is Executive Director and General Manager John McCune, based in Derby.
LinQ Alliance’s origins lie in the Transport Association, formed 50 years ago, long before today’s transport networks, as an informal arrangement in which hauliers supported each other with tyre and fuel problems.
LinQ Alliance came into being to protect the Transport Association’s members’ businesses in tough trading conditions and improve their business mix: “Five years ago,” Bob recalls, “the TA members floated the idea of setting up a consortium to market our services jointly, and LinQ Alliance Ltd was born.”
Most early custom for the Alliance came from members’ existing customers, but the concept’s initial success soon attracted new clients.
“LinQ’s national set-up is tangible and convincing, and we regularly win major contracts in building materials, packaging, healthcare, retail and distribution.” LinQ Alliance also handles a broad mix of other goods including personal care, soft drinks, motor components, stationery, books and paper.
LinQ Alliance’s biggest single customer is in building materials. LinQ members currently distribute their products nationwide from three of the client’s numerous factories, after initially serving one factory three years ago.
LinQ Alliance recently had what Bob calls “a classic enquiry” from a retailer with a distribution base in Scotland. When confirmed, this will involve four member companies working together, with Meachers as Southern anchor.
“In our business you can’t run on price: you’ve got to do something different. We’re equipped to help the Scottish client and other retailers expand their stores and their overall supply chain based around our depot network, reducing their capital expenditure at a stroke.”
A true Alliance
LinQ Alliance is an alliance in the true sense, says Bob Terris: “We’re uniquely placed to compete for business collectively on a recognised contractual basis. We’re run as a commercial enterprise, with a board of directors, all from independent businesses.”
The LinQ Alliance member companies are Alan Firmin; AAR Craib; Bedfords Transport; Chamberlains; CS Ellis; Devereux: Edwin Farrall & Sons; Evans Transport; Fagan & Whalley; Garn Transport; Gerry Jones; Jack Richards; James Nuttall; JBT; Knowles; Meachers; QTR; S&S Distribution; SJ Bargh; Simpson Brothers; Stephen Sanderson; TH Brown; Treasure Transport; Truswell: Wyvern Cargo.
They are all long established, well-known regional businesses, committed to the LinQ Alliance principle of national service, regional focus. Individual turnovers vary from £5m to £50m, on fleets of 40 to 100 plus vehicles.
Bob is in touch every day with most members, over ongoing business. More formal member communications include a monthly email newsletter and twice-yearly meetings, seminars with members’ dept and traffic managers and frequent contact between members’ sales teams.
Having begun with an externally recruited Chief Executive, in 2004 LinQ Alliance’s directors assumed responsibility for managing the company. Bob Terris took over as Chairman and Chief Executive, responsible for operations, sales and marketing and fellow director Martin Brown of TH Brown, took over LinQ’s admin and accounts.
Bob and Martin run their functions from their respective companies’ offices: “Enquiries come into Meachers’ sales function, then we involve other members as required.” This avoids duplicating overheads; “It’s working so well, I doubt we’ll change it.”
The other directors are Ken Devereux, Devereux Transport; Murray Prentice, JBT; Stuart Cornthwaite, SJ Bargh; and Peter Simpson, Simpson Brothers. LinQ Alliance’s directors are elected for a two-year term, three rotating each year. The Chairman is also elected every two years. The Committee members meet every month.
LinQ Alliance in action
LinQ Alliance offers a wide range of services across a number of disciplines, primarily in transport and also in an increasing number of logistics-related areas, backed by the degree of care typical of a regional style operator, delivered on a national basis.
“Our members are in pretty well every pallet network, and we have the option open to use. If customers want a total service we can provide most of it, but for parcels or pallets we work with the best option available for the service required.”
Bob Terris was on the committee at Pallex at one time on behalf of Meachers: “I have great respect for their work: we’ve no intention of starting an alternative pallet network. We’re here to provide clients with the overall management, planning and service for their logistics requirements, backed by the appropriate customer care.
“We provide efficient decision making and rapid reaction time. We’re empowered to make decisions, and have the edge over larger providers who take longer to decide. I can convert a contract today and commit to the required expenditure to provide the service, and tell the client the same day that we can go ahead.
“By integrating the many competencies within LinQ Alliance, we have developed a unique approach to supply chain management. Unlike other national service providers, we don’t have a complicated administrative structure and impersonal call centres. The other benefit is, we pass on the cost savings from reduced administration and provide efficient decision and reaction times. There aren’t too many logistics companies on our scale, owned and controlled by their members.”
As a regional style operator working on a national basis, LinQ Alliance offers customers the best of both worlds – customer focused management, national distribution synergies, efficient decision and reaction times, local management teams, creative and innovative solution development and sophisticated IT systems. LinQ’s Roadrunner traffic management system is linked to all members, so they can view work on screen, and put work on the system and take it off.
“LinQ Alliance as an entity doesn’t have Track and Trace,” says Bob: “that’s down to individual members, but if customers want it, it can be accommodated. Customers can get Proof Of Delivery on line from the members handling their contract.” The LinQ Alliance IT function is managed by Meachers’ IT manager, supported by Meachers’ IT partners RoadTech.
A winning formula
LinQ Alliance has the same members today as when it started: “Our members took the initial risk, and now they’re reaping the rewards. LinQ members make money directly from the work they do in a contract. In other consortia the profit stays in the centre and is shared: our members retain two thirds of the margin. The prime object is to make the members more profitable.”
As Chairman, Bob has an open management style: “Members know they can call me any time to sort problems out. If we need to discuss issues formally, they’re debated at the AGM or the twice-yearly meetings. The members are generally pleased with how we run things.”
LinQ Alliance starts the process of developing a customer solution by analysing the business: “It can be difficult to introduce change on a tight schedule, but we often put in continuous improvements. We’re a lot more flexible than most third party logistics providers: in any case most of them haven’t got over forty depots, they subcontract.”
From signing contracts to starting work often takes several months, Bob acknowledges, “but we’re open about the need for an interim contract to deliver the service agreed at the outset, due to lack of availability of new equipment. Interim contracts are more expensive – there’s a cost involved.”
LinQ Alliance’s customers tend to put work through regularly: “One customer has a twice-yearly racing circuit contract, the rest are more frequent.” LinQ’s stringent credit restrictions mean service for a customer only starts after thorough credit checks. So far LinQ hasn’t had one bad debt.
Work is allocated between members, “but it’s not purely geographic, it depends how it fits in day to day with members’ vehicle movements.”
Members’ non-conformance and service issues are monitored and recorded at the Alliance’s National Traffic Office in Derby. Details are forwarded to the member and copied to Bob: “If they’re not resolved satisfactorily I get involved. Sometimes it’s down to the customer: our contracts set performance requirements for both sides.”
Services to suit
LinQ Alliance Ltd has ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 accreditation, and all members have ISO 9001. The services offered between the member companies cover supply chain management, worldwide distribution, warehousing; fleet and facility management; added value services; and contract management.
Supply chain management takes in outsourced contract management; fulfilment contracts; and contracts of affreightment. Worldwide distribution spans general haulage; pallet distribution; home delivery; deliveries to Scottish Islands; groupages: specialist haulage; and freight forwarding. Warehousing covers bonded and non-bonded facilities; ambient and temperature controlled; case/pallet order pick & assembly; labelling, packing and banding; break bulk; barcoding; WMS Stock Control & Status Reporting; and E-communications.
Fleet Management covers reverse logistics; recycling; and retail solutions. Added Value Services embraces kitting and pre-assembly; sequence and line feeding; re-working and re-packaging; labeling and merchandising; packaging and bundling; and QA control.
All these services are available from the LinQ Alliance, which offers consistent coverage across the UK. Over 80% of work going through the Alliance is currently transport-focused, says Bob, “but as we get more established, interest is growing in our work further along the supply chain and our wider operations.”
The custom of contracting transport out to escape restrictive practices has more or less disappeared now, Bob observes: in 2008 the major factors are the recently introduced legislation about drivers’ hours, road congestion and driver shortages. “The new offence of corporate manslaughter also adds an element of anxiety for people who don’t pay attention to running their transport properly. Hence the area of largest interest is contractual business, involving management, added value and planning.”
LinQ – a thoroughly modern Alliance
Individual LinQ Alliance members such as Meachers are active in representing industry views through the RHA and other industry bodies, but as Bob puts it, LinQ Alliance is “first and foremost a service provider, not a campaigner for change.”
Bob Terris is realistic about the industry’s prospects in 2008: “From our viewpoint we’re already in recession. UK manufacturing’s been decimated in the last decade, and it’s impacted on raw material and finished goods movements. Near us, in Southampton, factories are standing empty and thousands of jobs have disappeared: interest rates, falling house prices and pressure on consumer income will further reduce demand.
“This will be a grim year for the transport and logistics industry overall, but efficient business models like ours will continue to prosper. We’ll see cost of supply rising driven by fuel costs and a number of transport operators going to the wall, all good news for a strong consortium like LinQ Alliance.
Bob remains confident about the future for LinQ Alliance and its members: “There’ll always be UK industry sectors with goods to be moved, hence we’ve focused on core areas like building products, which are too dense and too cheap to be worthwhile importing, so they will go on being made here. We understand our market and know where we want to be: we have a good mix of profitable short term business and a long term plan.
“LinQ Alliance is well established, with a growing reputation and within the next three years will be perceived to be a viable alternative to the top five third party logistics providers. Success attracts success – it’s like confetti. The beauty of the LinQ Alliance is, it enhances the members’ existing businesses and provides additional opportunities for us and our members to grow without huge investment in business development and for our customers to benefit, and it will continue to do so on a growing scale.”
LinQ Alliance Ltd
Tel: 01332 666663
www.linqalliance.co.uk
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