Adding valuable capacity to ATL’s growing supply chain solutions business, the company’s new Midlands Hub has opened several commercial doors in recent months, but its role as template for future ATL expansion is becoming increasingly apparent.
With a business operating over 100 vehicles and 150 trailers combined with nationwide warehousing across the country and a diverse range of operational sectors from food to tyres, precise management of customer requirements is critical to the business, says ATL operations director Ricardo Sarsfield.
“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, we believe it’s the way we do business that really sets us apart.
“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.”
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, Ricardo Sarsfield 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.
“We’ve learned a lot in terms of structure, systems integration and responsibilities establishing the Midlands Hub and have no doubt we can take this business model to other locations.”
New facilities across the group now include the latest narrow aisle line-guided equipment from Jungheinrich linked to a JDA on-demand internet-based warehouse management system with the potential to go to full automation in the future if this is required.
“By using scanners and linking to our narrow aisle trucks, our JDA Warehouse Management System can allow customers have full visibility of where their products are at any given time, whether in the warehouse or on delivery.
“It can also be linked to billing, allowing companies to go paperless if they want to.”
Nestle and Pirelli are already using the full web-interface the system offers with other clients likely to follow suit in the near future, he says.
“It’s a fully integrated system that we can effectively implement in any future operations we develop and can grow with us as we take on new sites.”
Such an approach is very much key to providing the critical ‘peace of mind’ required by exacting customers, but more intangible elements play a vital role too, believes ATL Managing Director Jon Ward.
“Much of it is about attitude. Obviously, making the correct investment decisions around resources and systems such as JDA are important but fundamentally you have to have people who care about what they’re doing.
“What’s more, it’s not enough to look at the standards achieved within the immediate industry we work in. You have to identify best in class across different sectors, work out how they achieve what they do and then see how you can bring these principles into your own area of specialism.
“This extends across all KPIs and benchmarks be they financial, operational or vehicle efficiency, but it’s absolutely critical when looking at the performance of people and the way they relate to customers.”
Whilst many people in transport and logistics consider their operation as moving goods from A to B, they should really be thinking of themselves in terms of people businesses focused on consistently meeting client expectations and offering an invaluable safe-pair of hands, he believes.
“It’s a lesson other industry sectors have learned to their benefit and one our own area is only just starting to grasp. What we do and how we do it is absolutely key to our customers’ business efficiency.
“At the end of the day, we have to be accountable and give assurance that goods will be picked up when required, transported safely in a way that meets all legislative and other requirements and will be stored sensitively until they are ready for the next stage of their journey.
“For sure, we need the right equipment and systems to deliver that, but more than anything we need people prepared to really own all stages of that process and that is what sets ATL apart and why we think our growth aspirations are achievable.”
In any successful business, scale matters. But in many cases it’s not just about trying to be as big as possible but instead identifying the ideal size that balances resources with customer expectations and delivers the business performance demanded by shareholders, Jon Ward explains.
“It’s too easy to get locked into thinking that the only way to be successful is to compete with the household names of the industry, whilst in truth a different business model can be more agile, deliver more to customers and offer employees a better life.
“Don’t get us wrong, we’re focused on growth but we don’t want to lose our identity along the way and turn our back on the strengths that our success is built on.
“We’ve built robust partnerships with customers over the years and a key element of this has been taking an interest in what they do and adopting a solutions approach to what we provide.
“We have to be realistic. There are hundreds of logistics service providers out there but the businesses that we currently work with are loyal to us for a specific reason and have chosen us against the competition so we must never lose sight of that.”
The level of bespoke care ATL provides is something they don’t often get if they talk to bigger operations, he believes.
“We can be much more flexible in day-to-day operations – firstly we are set up to work specifically with their requirements and secondly we offer more direct lines of communication.
“You have to have the scale to offer prestige companies what they need but often the ‘off-the-shelf’ transport and logistics services that are usually the lowest cost option are not really what modern finely-tuned, just-in-time businesses require.
“We recognise that and have a great team of people who are prepared to be creative and invest time in developing a solution that really matches customer needs as well as being open minded about how such a strategic partnership might work.
“Whilst we have what many people would consider to be old fashioned values, which we’re proud of, we’re pretty good at doing cutting edge and dynamic too, as the Midands Hub clearly shows.”
ATL
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