Widdowson Group

A.M. Widdowson & Son Ltd.
Company type	Private Company
Genre	Logistics
Founded	1902
Founder	Mr A.M. Widdowson
Defunct	circa 2017
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	£24,000,000 pa (2013)
Owner	Widdowson Family
Number of employees	330 (2013)
Website	widdowson-group.com

A Commercial Vehicle in 2008 outside main reception.

2011 Widdowson Group Vehicle and Trailer Livery.

Widdowson Group was a family owned and operated company in the British logistics industry.^[1] They offered various services based around the Logistics industry and Road Transportation services.

The company entered administration in 2017.^[2]^[3]

History

Established in the early 1900s as A.M. Widdowson and Son, the Widdowson Group haulage business worked locally, moving coal within the Leicester area. By the late 1980s, the company expanded into an organisation that was providing services throughout the whole of Great Britain. The Widdowson Group operated 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 was the biggest Division of The Widdowson Group with a fleet with over 130 vehicles, mostly local businesses.^[4] The fleet extended 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 per vehicle.

Warehouse (Warehousing, Storage): The Warehouse Division was based over several sites^[5] and rivaled the Traffic Division for the biggest turnover. The Widdowson Group had 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 utilised EDI solutions with integrated RF and barcode scanning in their WMS supplied by Road Tech.^{[clarification needed]} Widdowson Group often tailored warehousing solutions^[buzzword] to the customers they were dealing with, for historical customer PepsiCo the Widdowson Group dedicated a whole warehouse for that client. Where as the warehousing service offered to United Biscuits was that they stored pallets of their products goods amongst other customer's pallets.

Freight (International Freight, Freight Forwarding, World Shipping, VAT Receipt): The Freight Office offered 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 was an established commercial vehicle center. The Widdowson Group also offered personal car repairs for friends and family of the Widdowson Group.

Contract Pack (Rework, Added Value, Contract Packing, Reverse Logistics, Hand assembly ): This was the fastest^[6] growing Division of the Widdowson Group concentrating on added value tasks such as the repackaging, barcoding, inspection and labeling of goods. An example of the Contract Packing^[7]^[8] operation was when the Widdowson Group package Christmas gift-packs for Boots UK, the Contract Packing department took the raw products (often toiletries) and packed them into a decorative gift box along with extra gift items like socks.

Training (Training School, Driver Training): The Commercial Training Academy^[9] offered 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.^{[clarification needed]}

Pallet Repair: The Widdowson Group generated a profit from a pallet repair operation,^[10] where teams of its staff repaired damaged pallets to be used again.

Locations

Memberships and Affiliates

BSI, UKWA, RHA, BIFA, BCMPA, RMIF, DSA

Widdowson Group had been executive box holders at Leicester City F.C. since the 1990s and are one of the longest serving executive box holders at the club. Widdowson Group were part of the consortium of 55 parties led by Gary Lineker who invested money to rescue the club from Administration in 2003.^[11]

References

^ "Xerox Global Document Services".
^ Metcalf, Sam; Evans, Ian (2017-03-17). "Leicester haulage firm went under owing £2.2m". East Midlands. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
^ "Collapsed Widdowson Logistics succeeded by Birds Transport Leicester". 7 February 2017.
^ "Technical Warehouse Manual".
^ "Widdowson Group". Archived from the original on 2014-01-15. Retrieved 2009-06-15.
^ http://www.packagingeurope.com/Packaging-Europe-News/43268/Contract-Pack-at-Packaging-Innovations-London-offers-the-complete-package.html ^{[dead link]}
^ http://www.packagingeurope.com/Packaging-Europe-News/42957/Widdowson-Group-processes-more-than-a-million-gift-packs-a-year-for-Blue-Tree.html ^{[dead link]}
^ "Widdowson promotes quality contract packing services at easyFairs Packaging Innovations". www.mhwmagazine.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2011-11-27.
^ http://dsa.gov.uk/LGVReg.asp?id=SXC05F-A78284B0&cat=324
^ "IPP Logipal extends UK operation - News - Logistics Manager". www.logisticsmanager.com. Archived from the original on 2011-10-05.
^ "Investegate |Leicester City FC Announcements | Leicester City FC: Share Subscription".

External links

[1] "Xerox Global Document Services".

[2] Metcalf, Sam; Evans, Ian (2017-03-17). "Leicester haulage firm went under owing £2.2m". East Midlands. Retrieved 2022-12-30.

[3] "Collapsed Widdowson Logistics succeeded by Birds Transport Leicester". 7 February 2017.

[4] "Technical Warehouse Manual".

[5] "Widdowson Group". Archived from the original on 2014-01-15. Retrieved 2009-06-15.

[6] ttp://www.packagingeurope.com/Packaging-Europe-News/43268/Contract-Pack-at-Packaging-Innovations-London-offers-the-complete-package.html ^{[dead link]}

[7] ttp://www.packagingeurope.com/Packaging-Europe-News/42957/Widdowson-Group-processes-more-than-a-million-gift-packs-a-year-for-Blue-Tree.html ^{[dead link]}

[8] "Widdowson promotes quality contract packing services at easyFairs Packaging Innovations". www.mhwmagazine.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2011-11-27.

[9] ttp://dsa.gov.uk/LGVReg.asp?id=SXC05F-A78284B0&cat=324

[10] "IPP Logipal extends UK operation - News - Logistics Manager". www.logisticsmanager.com. Archived from the original on 2011-10-05.

[11] "Investegate |Leicester City FC Announcements | Leicester City FC: Share Subscription".

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