LAST year was another successful year for Dachser Ltd, the UK subsidiary of the family-owned, German-headquartered global logistics services provider.
UK sales turnover increased by around 16 per cent to £77m, and the number of employees grew to 410 in total across the four branch locations of Northampton, Rochdale, Dartford and Bristol.
As ever, and with no visible impact yet of any general business uncertainties related to the Brexit process, it was Dachser’s European export service portfolio which saw the highest degree of growth, up 21 per cent on top-line sales. Many more customers have decided to take advantage of the daily outbound services from each branch which connect with the regional hub centres and local delivery branches comprising Dachser’s comprehensive European network.
Time-defined, reliable distribution services are accompanied by an exceptional degree of delivery status visibility, accessible by Dachser’s customers via its web portal as well as the Shipment Pointer app. Dachser brands this user-friendly, internet-based tracking service under its ‘eLogistics’ offering.
“The real-time nature of our track-and-trace function is a really valuable tool for our export customers,” said Lasse Hammer, Dachser UK’s Northampton-based IT Manager. “Real-time consignment and delivery status information is available to them as a result of the wide extent of bar-code scanning throughout our network which captures the arrival and departure of all shipments at every stage of their journey, right through to the final delivery to the ultimate consignee.”
Dachser has seen exceptional high levels of growth in its contract logistics and value-added services too. The company already has two warehouse locations in Northampton, one at Brackmills as part of its Logistics Centre which was opened four years ago in 2014, having been built to a bespoke design and configuration, and another leased warehouse at Round Spinney.
All in all, there is a capacity of some 30,000 pallets across the two sites. Occupancy levels are increasing as more and more customers are taking advantage of the opportunity to store inventory at a Dachser location close to the centre of the UK as well as being a main connecting point and bridge to one of the most comprehensive and reliable road freight networks in the whole of Europe.
“Food packaging, building materials and components, DIY products, retail supplies… the list is long and ever-increasing,” said Nick Lowe, Dachser’s UK Managing Director. “Our combination of high-quality warehousing, with customer-focused, efficient order processing and administration, as well as UK and European delivery services, has enabled us to continue to develop new business from a widening customer base.
“Increasingly, we are becoming more involved in our customers’ end-to-end supply chain requirements. We are also very happy to provide an extensive range of value-added services, either on a regular basis to a prescribed routine such as co-packing or mixed-case picking and labelling, and/or in accordance with ad hoc requirements which can occur from time to time.
“In some ways, we can be considered as the last link in our customers’ outbound supply chains. As such we can help to add some considerable value to their sales and fulfilment performance if and when product re-packaging or re-configuration is required, sometimes unexpectedly, in order to meet their own customers’ demands and requirements.”
For more information on Dachser UK’s range of logistics and supply chain services, visit www.dachser.co.uk or call 01604 433181.