20 Top 50


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Winning third party logistics strategies


W


elcome to our annual survey of theTop Logistics Service Providers 2012. It’s been a busy year for the 3PL sector, with a number of mergers and acquisitions changing the landscape of themarket in the UK.


It’s been a year of dramatic change. UPS in the UK could look forward to a


summerdevotedto theOlympics.but nowit is also in theprocess of takingoverTNT Express in a five billion euro deal that will change the shape of the express parcels market globally. Having gone through the recession of 2009, third party logistics providers could


reasonably have expectedto seebusinessmovingaheadin 2011-12.The reality has been thatmarkets have been flat or seenmarginal growth at best.As a result, there has been a focus on strengthening balance sheets and boosting profitmargins. In the express business, it’s not just UPS that has been active. FedEx is in the


process of two acquisitions, while domestically, DX Group has taken over Nightfreight. This survey aims to provide the fundamental data needed when looking for a


logistics partner with the emphasis on activities in the UK. We estimate companies’ positions in the Top 50 on the basis on sales in the UK


using data froma variety of sources. We invite companies to provide us with the information we need for the listings,


and we also research data independently.Where companies do not publish UK sales figures we use accounts lodged with Companies House to give an indication. Large companies can have many subsidiaries. In these cases, we do our best to showthemost significant UK businesses,butwe can’t claimto have tracked themall down – we apologise for any omissions. While the main listing focuses on UK-based third party logistics operations, we


also provide a list of the major global players. We have also included a list of international freight forwarders that have significant forwarding businesses in the UK.


The pallet networks are listed separately. Because they have different business


structures, some provide sales figures for the full networkwhile others only account for central hub operations.We have done our best to show who does what. To get into the Top 50 this year required sales of more than £50m – and the


companies that havemade it into theTop50 this year still haveplenty of competition. Reflecting this, we also provide a list of companies to watch – those that didn’t


make it into the listing this year but are growing. If you think your company should be included in future editions,we would be delighted to hear fromyou.


Johanna Parsons September 2012 Supply Chain Standard


providethe fundamental dataneeded whenlooking foralogistics partner.


TheTop50 aimsto


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