Widdowson Group
A.M. Widdowson & Son Ltd.
|
| Type |
Private Company |
| Genre |
Logistics |
| Founded |
1902 |
| Founder(s) |
Mr A.M. Widdowson |
| Headquarters |
Glenfield, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom |
| Number of locations |
4 |
| Area served |
Worldwide |
| Key people |
Peter Stevenson (MD)
Harry Hawksworth (TD)
John Hawksworth (CD)
Arnaud Arhainx (FD) |
| Services |
Logistics
Transport
Warehouse
Freight
Garage Service
Rework
Contract Packing
LGV/HGV/FLT Training
Pallet Repair |
| Revenue |
£25,000,000 pa (2011) |
| Owner(s) |
Widdowson Family |
| Employees |
360 (2011) |
| Website |
widdowson-group.com |
Widdowson Group is one of the major players in the British logistics industry.[1]
History
Established in the early 1900s as A.M. Widdowson and Son, the Widdowson Group haulage business worked as a very local company moving coal within the Leicester area. By the late 1980s the company expanded into an organisation that was providing services throughout the whole on Britain. Today they operate through six separate trading divisions: logistics warehousing, contract packing, transport, freight forwarding, pallet repair, garage services and a commercial training academy.
Divisions
- Traffic (Transport, Haulage, Groupage, deliveries)
- Road transport is the biggest Division of The Widdowson Group with a fleet with over 130 vehicles, most being Scania [2][3] some being Iveco.[4] The fleet extends from panic vans to 44 tonne artics and includes over 200 trailers. The division operates as two functions "Groupage" and "Full Loads". Full Loads is where an entire vehicle is loaded for a single purpose, usually a single delivery. Groupage works on the basis of multi-client and multi-drops for a vehicle, which usually works out very cost effective for a customer with one consignment in that the customer will only have to pay for the portion of the vehicle space used, rather then having to pay to 'charter' a vehicle for their specific single consignment.
- Warehouse (Warehousing, Storage)
- The Warehouse Division based over several sites[5] and rivals the Traffic Division for the biggest turnover. The Widdowson Group have three warehouse sites operating over 700,000 sq. ft. of warehousing offering dedicated or shared user storage facilities in racked or bulk configuration on a contractual or short term basis. The warehouse systems utilise EDI solutions with integrated RF and Barcode scanning in their WMS supplied by Road Tech. Widdowson Group often tailer warehousing solutions to the customer they are dealing with, previously for PepsiCo the Widdowson Group have dedicated a whole warehouse for the client. Where as the warehousing service offered to United Biscuits is that they store pallets of United Biscuits goods amongst other customer's pallets.
- Freight (International Freight, Freight Forwarding, World Shipping)
- The Freight Office offers a range of international services such as import, export and bonded warehousing.
- Garage (Vehicle Maintenance)
- Originally established to maintain and service Widdowson's own fleet of vehicles and trailers, the Garage Division is now an established and recognised commercial vehicle center of excellence which is in line with operator's ‘O’ Licence requirements including all associated paperwork. The Widdowson Group also offers personal car repairs for friends and family of the Widdowson Group.
- Contract Pack (Rework, Added Value, Contract Packing, Reverse Logistics, Hand assembly )
- This is the fastest[6] growing Division of the Widdowson Group concentrating on added value tasks such as the repackaging, barcoding, inspection and labeling of goods. Using processes and procedures the Widdowson Group can dynamically grow or reduce output dependent on customer deadlines, dedicated staff manage the temporary workers to ensure work is carried out efficiently and to a high quality. An example of the Contract Packing [7][8] operation is when the Widdowson Group package Christmas gift-packs for Boots UK, the Contract Packing department takes the raw products (often toiletries) and packs them into a decorative gift box along with extra gift items like socks.
- Training (Training School, Driver Training)
- The Commercial Training Academy [9] offer LGV C, C+E courses and FLT training to both paying public looking to start a new career, private companies looking to develop internal staff and internally to train and retrain staff. One of the main focuses of the internal aspect of the training department is to improve the lorry drivers' emissions and thus saving money and helping the environment in one movement.
- Pallet Repair
- The Widdowson Group generates a profit from a pallet repair operation,[10] where teams of its staff repair damaged pallets to be used again.
Locations
- Glenfield, Leicester.
- Braunstone, Leicester♦
- Bardon, Coalville.
♦(two sites).
Memerships and Affiliates
BSI, UKWA, RHA, BIFA, BCMPA, RMIF, DSA
References
External links