Europa Worldwide Group is an ambitious independent logistics operator with three divisions, Europa Road, Europa Air & Sea, and Europa Warehouse, and has been featured in The Sunday Times Top Track 250 for three years. Europa has invested £5 million in its innovative market-leading product, Europa Flow, providing a frictionless flow of goods between the EU and the UK post Brexit. The group employs over 1,400 people with 19 sales offices in the UK, and the Republic of Ireland, plus European teams in Belgium and the Netherlands and internationally in Hong Kong, China, India and the UAE. The global operator recently reported a record turnover of £302m for the last 12 months, as of August 2022, and remains on track with its ambitious investment programme.
Dionne Redpath, Chief Operating Officer and Europa Warehouse Director speaks to Warehouse & Logistics News.
Chief Operating Officer and Europa Warehouse Director
What does your role involve on a day-to-day basis?
I have worked for the Chief Executive of Europa, Andrew Baxter, for over 25 years in various roles.
At Europa, I wear two hats! In September 2021, I was appointed Chief Operating Officer, and then in January 2022, I was asked to take responsibility of Europa’s Warehouse division.
Over the past six months, the majority of my time is spent within the warehouse division, launching our new pallet storage rate, priced at just £1.49 + VAT per pallet, per week for requirements of 3,000 pallets or more. In addition, having spent the summer months planning for the peak Christmas season, we are now busy implementing these plans, monitoring, evaluating, and adjusting where needed.
How would you explain the Europa Worldwide’s Culture?
Europa’s culture is truly unique. Every single person who works within this organisation understands the values of our business, embodies these values, and applies a sense of pride in the job that they do; a job well done. This team strength has powered us through Covid, helped overcome Brexit challenges, and is helping us remain innovative and responsive through the current economic headwinds that everyone is having to navigate.
How does this culture assist your clients’ requirements?
We work very hard to help our customers achieve their business goals, supporting them in building their brand and powering their growth. We don’t stand still and pride ourselves in remaining innovative and focusing on our own competitiveness, meaning our clients benefit from that approach
Do you have direct contact with customers, and get involved developing solutions?
Yes, I do! Spending time with our customers, and the Europa team are definitely the favourite parts of my job. Working with existing, new, and potential customers very closely affords us the insights needed to create the right solution for their businesses. We have a brilliant team of dedicated specialists here at Europa Warehouse and I feel lucky to be part of this incredible team.
Tell us how Europa Worldwide is growing in the UK.
When people think of Europa – they automatically think ‘Road’, and that is fabulous. However, over the last 18 months, we have had quite a rapid expansion here in the UK across our Road, Air and Sea, and Warehouse divisions. This, alongside investment and growth in our IT systems and solutions, puts us in the perfect position to offer bespoke, end-to-end solutions to customers, regardless of their size or complexity.
What makes Europa Worldwide unique in your industry?
Europa is very fortunate to have a forward thinking, progressive, and innovative CEO with the drive and ambition to make things happen. Andrew Baxter is a visionary with a deep understanding of our industry and unique insights into what our customers’ need. By looking at life through the eyes of our customers, we stay focused on delivering solutions and designing products that are market leading. All of this is propelled by Andrew, he is leading the charge.
What solutions do you offer customers?
For our warehouse customers, we have already mentioned our secure pallet storage rate of £1.49 + VAT, per pallet, per week for quantities exceeding 3,000 pallets at our cutting-edge Corby Warehouse, helping to keep costs down without compromising on quality. However, this is just one solution that we are able to provide to our customers.
Europa’s shared-user automated picking solution has opened up a whole new world of opportunity for those clients who might not want to invest huge sums of money across a ten year contract. Advanced technology, software and robotics has made it possible for any business, regardless of size, the complexity of their stock, or fluctuations in the external environment, to achieve increased productivity, simplify operations and improve customer satisfaction.
What sectors do these clients work in?
Europa Warehouse division operates across three sites in Corby, Birmingham and Dartford, each delivering tailored solutions to customers across a variety of sectors, from cosmetics, perfumes, high-end fashion and jewellery, and the beverage market to components, electricals and general consumer goods.
How can your solutions help?
•Simplifying complex operations.
•Helping smooth volatile flows.
•Eradicating unnecessary cost and waste.
•Providing insights into stock behaviour.
•Finding innovative routes to market.
•Seamless end-to-end supply chain management.
How future proof and flexible are your solutions?
Whatever our customers need, we are open to designing the right solutions. At the centre of this service offering is our friendly team of experts who are capable and determined to deliver optimum results.
What new services/solutions are you offering for 2024?
In 2024, we aim to focus on maintaining our competitiveness in, what is predicted to be, tough trading conditions. We’ll continue to keep an eye on technological solutions, adapt quickly and respond effectively to change, and ensure that our core offering remains solid.
What do you see as the biggest opportunities in the coming year for Europa Worldwide?
To carry on doing what we are doing. This year marked a decade of growth for Europa Worldwide and our aim is to continue to build on this success, utilising all three service divisions to concentrate on delivering a seamless logistics solution to our customers.
What are the biggest challenges facing Europa Worldwide and your industry?
It goes without saying that everyone is feeling increasing pressure to do more with the same resources… or less. Value extends beyond the price of the service provision. Ensuring the highest levels of accuracy (for example), can reduce returns, minimise complaints, and drive repeat purchases – all of which are vital facets in our clients’ own growth journeys.
Tell us about a recent project Europa Worldwide were involved with.
Naturally, we have dozens of projects simultaneously managed at process, client, site, and industry level, and there are two that I would like to mention.
On an industry level, I was honoured to be asked to participate in the annual UKWA House of Lords Round Table. This event, held on 17 October 2023, marked the launch of UKWA’s year-long campaign, ‘Year of Warehousing’. This campaign aims to highlight the critical role of warehousing in the supply chain, the sector’s contribution to the UK economy, and the vital employment opportunities provided to over one million people. It was an absolute honour to be invited to take part in this discussion and I’m looking forward to representing Europa in helping this campaign’s success in 2024.
At client level, we embarked on a piece of work for one of our customers that involved two main objectives: to deliver efficiencies and reduce unnecessary waste. As part of this project, we were able to introduce new packaging that used less materials, was more robust, reduced the risk of damage to goods during transit, and was 42% smaller in size. This small improvement has delivered a significant reduction in pallet storage space requirements, decreased transportation needs, lowered the organisations’ carbon footprint, and delivered efficiencies across their business operations.
Europa
01322 474 000
sophia.jones@europa-worldwide.com
Comments are closed.