Member Article

1Hub Marks Third Anniversary with 64% Rise in Consignments

Independent logistics operator Europa Worldwide Group is celebrating the many achievements of its innovative 1Hub site in Dartford, three years after launching the state-of-the-art facility.

Europa’s £30million 1Hub opened for business in Prologis Park, Littlebrook, in 2015. The 26,368m2 facility, which is big enough to house seven football pitches, was Europa’s largest single investment in its history.

Since the launch of 1Hub, the number of European consignments handled by Europa has increased by 64% from 22,000 to 36,000 per month. By centralising Europa’s European road freight, with its network of 10 regional branches trunking directly into the hub, the facility has improved efficiencies, increased payloads, driven down overseas distribution costs and built daily services to European partner depots to reduce transit times and improve quality.

Dan Cook, Operations Director at Europa Worldwide Group, said: “The creation of 1Hub has been a massive achievement for Europa. Over the last three years, the hub has performed exactly as anticipated by improving our operating model and delivering incredible efficiencies. We previously had two hubs, one in Erith and one in Birmingham, but now we have the perfect model in a purpose-designed building.

“Three years ago our domestic distribution system had less frequency of connection, longer transit times, higher cost and almost no visibility. Now we have the best distribution system for the collection and delivery of continental freight. We connect every night to local platforms, and our own locations, all of whom feed back electronic return data either in real time or by 9am the day after delivery.

“We now have a motivated and very stable workforce throughout the whole facility, delivering significant improvements in productivity in a great working environment. Our damage levels and failure rate of lost or misrouted cargo is almost nothing thanks to a well-designed, slick and effective set of processes working precisely as designed.”

Andrew Baxter, Managing Director at Europa, said: “I’m delighted to be marking three years at 1Hub in Dartford. The first 12 months were not without their challenges and it took a while for new systems and structures to be bedded in. However, we believe that movement is essential to achieve our goals and refining our operations will allow us to achieve the best long-term results.

“The launch of 1Hub has improved efficiencies as additional trunking costs for northern freight are fully offset by reduced international line haul costs. By centralising all our volume in 1hub, we have increased payloads and now operate direct line services to more European hubs, which has driven down overseas distribution costs. We have been able to build daily services to all our European partner depots, which has reduced transit times and improved quality.”

1Hub has 204,294 square feet of dedicated warehouse and logistics space, split equally between warehouse logistics and European transit operations. It provides warehouse services for blue chip customers, including value enhancing activities such as pick and pack, stock reworking, third party logistics, product manipulation and returns management.

The facility has total racked storage capacity of 25,000 pallet space and 13,842 square metres of space dedicated to pick and pack and assembly activities.

Europa Worldwide Group is a specialist road, air & sea and warehouse operator which employs more than 750 staff across 11 sites in the UK and Hong Kong.

**www.europa-worldwide.com

LinkedIn: Europa Worldwide Group

Twitter: @EuropaWorldwide

Instagram: @europaworlwide**

ENDS For further press information, additional photos or quotes contact Kathryn Greenwood or Emily Winsor-Russell at Eden Public Relations on 0115 958 8850 or email kathryn@edenpr.co.uk or emily@edenpr.co.uk

Notes to editors

Europa Worldwide Group is a fast-growing privately-owned freight forwarder which is structured into 4 operating companies – Europa Road, Europa Air & Sea, Europa Warehouse and Europa Showfreight.

Europa Road operates the UK’s largest European groupage hub which is situated in Dartford. It’s network of 10 UK branches trunk into Dartford from where freight connects with daily, direct services to 30 continental hubs.

Europa Air & Sea’s team provide bespoke services to its clients from its branches in the UK and Hong Kong.

Europa Warehouse offers 3rd party logistics services to clients, from its 3 substantial warehouses in Dartford, Northampton and Birmingham.

Europa Showfreight provides logistics services for goods going to and from exhibitions. Following an ambitious front-end restructuring of the business after Andrew Baxter acquired it in 2013, turnover has grown from £76m to £141m in 2017, organic volume growth across the business is running at 20 per cent and its presence in the market is stronger than ever before. The company employs more than 650 people in the UK and Hong Kong.

The business has succeeded through a combination of friendly people management and investing heavily in IT and physical infrastructure.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Maryke Penman .