Yusen Logistics partners with businesses around the world to build resilient, efficient, future-ready supply chains. With more than 25,000 employees in over 748 locations across 46 countries, our services span international freight forwarding, contract logistics, land transportation, and end-to-end supply chain management.
Headquartered in Tokyo, we are proud to be a wholly owned subsidiary of NYK Group, which is Japan’s largest shipping company and listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Driven by a commitment to continuous improvement and sustainability, our ambition is to become the world’s preferred supply chain partner.
We connect. We create. We commit.
In an increasingly complex and fast-evolving supply chain landscape, Yusen Logistics continues to position itself as a forward-thinking, customer-focused logistics partner. We spoke exclusively with Ben Bird, Business Development and Solutions Design Director, to discuss growth, innovation, and the company’s ongoing investment in the UK market.
What does your role involve on a day-to-day basis?
My role is all about bridging the gap between our customers’ strategic ambitions and the operational solutions that deliver them. On a daily basis, I work closely with customers to understand their challenges, while collaborating with our internal solutions design, sales, and operations teams to design and implement tailored logistics solutions.
It’s a dynamic role, part commercial, part technical and very much focused on delivering solutions that are both innovative and practical.
How would you describe the Yusen Logistics culture?
Yusen Logistics has a strongly collaborative and customer-centric culture. We’re focused on building long-term partnerships through trust to deliver, rather than short-term wins, and that drives how we behave as an organisation.
There’s also a real emphasis on continuous improvement and accountability. Our teams take ownership of outcomes, and we encourage innovation at all levels to ensure we’re constantly evolving.
How does this culture assist your clients’ requirements?
It enables us to be highly responsive and adaptable. We work in partnership with our customers, we can co-create solutions that evolve with their needs whilst maintaining a stable foundation in the operations.
That collaborative approach means we’re not simply delivering a service, we’re embedding our solutions and our people in their supply chain strategy, driving ongoing improvement and efficiency.
Do you have direct contact with customers and get involved in solution development?
Yes, very much so. Direct customer engagement is a key part of my role. I’m involved from initial consultation through to solution design, commercial negotiation, implementation and thereafter throughout the contract lifecycle.
That close interaction allows us to fully understand each client’s needs in their business, which is critical in developing solutions that genuinely add value.
Tell us how Yusen Logistics is growing in the UK
We’re seeing strong growth across several sectors, particularly retail, lifestyle, e-commerce, healthcare, and technology.
A major part of that growth is driven by continued investment in infrastructure and capability. A recent example is our investment in sustainable distribution centre (SDC) developments, which are designed to deliver scalable, high-efficiency warehousing solutions. These facilities enable us to support growing customer demand while improving operational performance through modern design and automation.
What makes Yusen Logistics unique in your industry?
What sets us apart is our ability to combine global reach with a very tailored, localised approach. We’re also one of only a few companies left in the UK that can provide really mature freight forwarding, contract logistics, UK B2B distribution, B2C carrier management & wider group services.
We work closely with our customers to understand the longevity of a solution and to meet specific customer requirements. At the same time, we bring the strength of a global network and deep sector expertise, which allows us to deliver both consistency and innovation.
What solutions do you offer customers?
We provide fully integrated, end-to-end supply chain solutions. This includes freight forwarding across all modes, contract logistics, warehousing, and value-added services such as returns management, packaging, and inventory optimisation.
Increasingly, we’re also offering digital solutions that improve supply chain visibility and control.
What sectors do your clients work in?
We operate across a broad range of sectors, including retail, automotive, healthcare, technology, consumer electronics and industrial manufacturing.
Each sector has its own complexities, and our approach is always tailored to address those specific challenges.
How can your solutions help?
Our focus is on delivering measurable improvements, whether that’s increased efficiency, reduced costs, or enhanced service levels.
More recently a few of our customers’ requests have been around controlling costs, or looking at specific challenges in their global supply chains due to global unrest.
By optimising processes, improving visibility, and building resilience into our own supply chains, we enable our customers to operate more effectively in a highly competitive environment.
How future-proof and flexible are your solutions?
Flexibility is central to everything we do. We design solutions that can scale and adapt as our customers’ businesses grow or change.
Whether that’s through modular warehouse design, automation, or digital integration, we ensure that solutions remain relevant and effective over the long term.
What new services or solutions are you offering for 2026?
Our Sustainable Distribution Centre is at the heart of everything we are doing this year, it combines sustainability, shared users, omnichannel logistics and automation into one site.
Expanding our use of automation within warehousing, enhancing data analytics capabilities, and developing more advanced control tower solutions to provide end-to-end supply chain visibility on top of this. We hope to connect customers to their supply chain data more effectively in the future.
We’re also increasing our focus on low-carbon logistics solutions to support customers’ sustainability goals.
What do you see as the biggest opportunities in the coming year?
One of the biggest opportunities lies in helping customers manage complexity, whether that’s through supply chain diversification, nearshoring strategies, or building greater resilience.
There’s also continued growth in e-commerce and healthcare logistics, both of which demand highly responsive and precise supply chain solutions.
What are the biggest challenges facing the industry?
The industry continues to face challenges around cost pressures, labour availability, and ongoing global uncertainty. On top of this, we have a consumer lead market in the UK and that creates its own challenges when it comes to sourcing of products etc for our customers.
At the same time, the rate of technological change means we must continually invest to stay competitive. Balancing cost, efficiency, and sustainability remains a key challenge for both logistics providers and their customers.
Can you tell us about a recent project Yusen Logistics has been involved with?
A recent highlight has been our investment in and development of SDC (Sustainable Distribution Centre) capabilities, which underpin some of our latest customer solutions.
These projects focus on creating high-efficiency, scalable warehousing environments, often incorporating advanced automation and optimised layouts. The result is improved throughput, better inventory accuracy, and enhanced service levels, particularly during peak periods.
This type of investment reflects our long-term commitment to supporting customer growth in the UK.
Do you cover the whole of the UK?
Yes, we have a comprehensive UK network that provides nationwide coverage and further afield with our Yusen Logistics operations across the world. We also now own GFS Carrier Management which is providing our customers with parcel management services globally, opening up the ecommerce and spare parts operations we have to new opportunities in terms of where to store product.
Combined with our global infrastructure, this enables us to deliver seamless, end-to-end supply chain solutions, both domestically and internationally.
Yusen Logistics
(44) 0330 0180017
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