Whistl Magazine Summer 2018

Whistl magazine Summer 2018 Whistl drives growth withnewacquisition

Shopping & shipping overseas AndrewGoddard on the benefits of multi-carrier delivery

CLOSING THE GENDER PAY GAP NEWWHISTL OPERATIONS DIRECTOR LEAFLETDROP GOES LIVE

CONSUMERS SPENDOVER £2 BNON SUBSCRIPTIONS CORNWALL SEES NEWWAVE OF POSTAL SERVICES

Closing

the gender

pay gap

Wells Said

We’ve certainly come a long way since we started the business in 2002 growing rapidly year on year to where we are today – handling 3 in 10 of all letters sent in the UK. It’s been, and continues to be, an exciting journey for us. And now, I’m delighted to tell you that we have acquired Parcelhub and its sister company Mail Workshop, a Nottingham- based business that specialises in multi-carrier delivery management, ecommerce customer service and fulfilment solutions for online retailers, brands and wholesalers. Needless to say, it’s a perfect fit for our business. We share the same values, and with our combined expertise in ecommerce and fulfilment, are in a great position to offer the kind of choice and shipping solutions small to medium sized e-tailers need. With 31% growth in our international business and 10% growth in our parcel traffic, we’re certainly a company that’s going places and well on track to hit our 2018 targets. Plus we’re doubling our investment in new state-of-the-art parcel sortation machines, integrated carrier management technology and seamless IT systems that will all help us improve our efficiency and agility when responding to high demand. exceptional service, whether that’s investing in infrastructure, expertise or our own people. And it’s this commitment that has proved to be the successful driving force behind our continuing growth. Everything we do here at Whistl is underpinned by our commitment to

Here atWhistl we’re passionate about creating a culture that values the fantastic contribution that bothmen andwomen make to our business. Soweweredelighted to see the results of our gender pay gap report that revealedweoutperformed the average for the transport and logistics sector, paying femaleemployees 5.2% moreonmedianaverage thanmaleemployees. The government’s newgender pay initiative requires employerswith250ormoreemployees topublish their gender pay figures, comparingmenandwomen’s averagepay across theorganisation. The gender pay gap is thedifference in the averagehourly wageof allmenandwomenacross aworkforce. If womendo moreof the lesswell-paid jobswithinanorganisation than men, the gender pay gap is usuallybigger. LynnDillon, HRDirector ofWhistl commented “The salary report by gender showswe are living up toour commitment to equality and fairness andwe’repleased that we’rebucking the trend for equal paywithin the industry. Ensuringweencourage career progression for all colleagues inour business, regardless of gender, raceor sexual orientationhas always beenour goal andwewill continue to strive todo so.”

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NickWells Chief Executive Whistl

Median-womencomparedtomen 1.DHLSupplyChain12.7% lower, 2.DPDGroup2% lower, 3.EddieStobart11.1% lower 4.RoyalMail1.5% lower 5.TNTUK8.6% lower 6.UPS19.8% lower 7.Whistl5.2%higher 8.Wincanton7% lower 9.XPOSupplyChain12% lower

FormoredetailsabouttheWhistlgenderpaygapreportvisit www.whistl.co.uk/news/

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News

Newpost We’re delighted to announce that we have appointed Fabiola Sharratt as our Operations Director. Fabiola brings extensive ecommerce expertise fromher previous role as Group Operations Director at The Hut Group, Europe’s fastest-growing health and beauty online retailer, where she was instrumental in developing its logistics, distribution and warehouse network across the UK, US, Australia and Europe. Nick Wells, CEO of Whistl said: “Our operations are the backbone of our business, enabling us to provide our customers with a high quality, efficient and low-cost service. It is important we hire the best people who can lead a team to deliver for our customers and Fabiola has those qualities as well as an impressive track record in operations. “We are a growing company and her operational experience will help support our plans. Whistl hire the best people to do the job and I ampleased to say that Fabiola is also the third woman to join our Executive Board.”

2018 Gender Pay Gap Report FromApril2018, companieswith 250ormore employees, including ourmain trading company,WhistlUK Ltd,are required topublish certain statistics relating toGenderPay.

March2018TotalPayGap

+0.26% (male< female)

Mean

Basedon theGovernment’s hourly ratemethodology,WhistlUK Ltd’s pay rateswere 0.26% and5.15% higher forwomen vsmen according to themean andmedianmethodologies respectively. Whistl is committed toensuring pay is fair,equitable and competitive regardlessofgender.Ourpolicies, including our compensation framework, union negotiatedoperationalpay structureand salarybenchmarking payband approach effectively promoteequalpayand supportgenderpayaims.

+5.15% (male< female )

Median

March2018PayQuartiles

Quartile

Male %

Female %

Thegenderpaymetric is influenced by theproportion ofmenand women ineach payquartile.The toppayquartile contains agreater proportion ofwomen compared to theother payquartileswhich increaseswomen’s averagehourly rateaccording toboth themean andmedianmethodologies.This table shows thepercentageof men andwomen in eachquarterof ourpayprofile.

Topquartile Uppermiddle quartile Lowermiddle quartile Lower quartile

63.5% 75.1% 73.0% 72.4%

36.5% 24.9% 27.0% 27.6%

March2018BonusPay

+2.0% (male< female)

Mean

Bonuses are linked to individualperformanceand or company targets,which supportsapay-for-performance culture.Thebonus paymetric is also significantly influenced by the proportion ofmen andwomen ineachof thepayquartiles, in particular according to themedianmethodologywhich shows that averagebonuses to womenwere 486% higher than tomen.This isdriven by the greater proportion ofmen thanwomen in lower payquartiles. 77.8%ofmenand 82.1% ofwomen received abonus in the relevant period shown in this chart.

+486.4% (male< female )

Median

Proportion receivingbonus

82.1 %

77.8 %

Male

Female

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Whistl Magazine • Summer 2018

News

Whistl drives growth withnewacquisition

We’re delighted to announce thatWhistl has acquiredmulti-carrier shipping and ecommerce customer service specialists, Parcelhub and its sister fulfilment and distribution companyMail Workshop in amove that will help strengthen our offering to online and multi-channel retailers. The Nottingham-based business which employs 90 people distributes over six million parcels a year throughout the UK and internationally on behalf of hundreds of online retailers, global brands and wholesalers. It’s an acquisition that fits

optimise our current parcels services to customers and build upon our expertise and presence in the fulfilment market.” Parcelhub Founder andManaging Director Mark Rosenberg, added: “We have got to a stage in the development of the company that we need the extra firepower fromWhistl to enable us tomaximise our potential and to create opportunities for further growth. We have a similar entrepreneurial outlook to business, providing services that make customers’ businesses run better operationally and more cost-efficiently.”

perfectly with our business as we rapidly grow our distribution and fulfilment capability tomeet the needs of the fast-changing ecommercemarket. Whistl Chief Executive NickWells said: “It’s a business that shares the same entrepreneurial spirit and values asWhistl so it’s a perfect match. Providing excellent customer service, cost-efficiency and choice for smaller businesses that could not otherwise access services and discounts available to large-volumemailers is a real driving force for both businesses.” “Working together we’ll be able to

Mark Rosenberg , Parcelhub Founder andManaging Director

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International

Shopping and shippingoverseas

With themassive growth in cross-border ecommerce coupled with rising consumer expectations and competing customer loyalty, there’s never been amore pressing need for online retailers to step up to the challenge. Here, AndrewGoddard, Commercial Director at Whistl talks to Rina Patel Maisuria to explain the importance of choosing a delivery partner that has the agility tomeet global consumer demand andwhy working withWhistl International is an all roundwin-win! What’s the secret to success in a global ecommercemarketplace? With more andmore online shoppers looking for lower prices and greater convenience, whether they’re receiving goods from the USA or returning products to the Netherlands, it’s really important to give consumers the choice, flexibility and efficiency they’re looking for. Providing customers with a great delivery experience is the key to keeping customers satisfied and loyal to your brand. How can amulti-carrier delivery strategy benefit e-tailers? The great advantage of working with a delivery partner that has a network of multiple global carriers like Whistl means you’re able to access a really agile infrastructure that’s robust enough and quick enough to keep pace with consumer demand. Restricting your shipping to one carrier can limit your ability to respond to surges in demand if their own network is under pressure. Operationally, multi- carrier delivery management enables you to keep your international shipping costs down, is totally scalable, plus smaller e-tailers can take

advantage of the kind of discounts that only large-volume senders receive. It’s an all-round win-win!

SowhodoesWhistl workwith? AtWhistl we take advantage of thediffering strengths and skills of numerous international carrierswhoprovide fast, premiumand standard tracked services aswell as priority untracked services. Having access to a network of different carriersmeans your customers can choose the most attractive shipping option to suit their budget and timescales, whilst retailers can ensure thebest delivery experience for customers at the most competitive rate. As international ecommerce grows sodowe! Customers expect fast, convenient fulfilment anddeliverywhatever country they’re ordering from. That’swhywe’ve recently invested in fulfilment and acquiredecommerce specialists Parcelhub and its sister fulfilment and distribution companyMail Workshop. Add to this our growing network of international delivery partners and you can see that we’re really committed to expanding and improving our operational efficiency right across theworld. It’s an exciting time andwe’re looking forward to the freshopportunities this boomingmarket brings. How isWhistl planning tomeet theongoing growth in international demand?

TofindoutmoreaboutWhistl International email moreinfo@whistl.co.ukor visitwww.whistl.co.uk/international

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Whistl Magazine • Summer 2018

Doordrop Media

Leafletdrop goes live

We’re pleased to announce that Leafletdrop, our new, improved leafleting service that enables you to organise your own leaflet campaigns online is now live. Ideal for small tomedium sized businesses, www.leafletdrop.co.uk is a slick new site that’s replaced our previous doordrop platform, designed to be quick and easy-to-use and to offer more flexibility with various booking, print and distribution options. The process is really simple and saves you all the time and hassle of dealing with different suppliers. You can either opt for our full end-to-end leafleting service where we organise printing of your design artwork and door-to-door distribution of your leaflets. Or, if you have your own printed leaflets, you can simply arrange for your leaflets to be distributed to your selected areas. One of the fantastic features of the website is our handy targeting tool, which enables you to identify and select the type of households and postcodes you want to reach. 

Accurate targeting is a really effective way of increasing sales, whether it’s generating more footfall to your store, visits to your website or telephone enquiries. That’s why our fantastic targeting tool works brilliantly. It gives you access to over 27million households and helps you define your audiencemore accurately so you’ll get a better response. Plus you’ll save on all the print costs of a wasteful hit andmiss approach. Mark Davies, Managing Director of Whistl Doordrop Media said: “Marketing can be a costly expense for SMEs, often being time-consuming and complex for new businesses. With this new leafleting service, business owners can launch a marketing campaign that is high impact and low cost from their desktop inminutes. Our dedicated teamwill thenmanage the campaign, allowing owners to focus on other areas of their business.” To get a campaign underway today, or to find out more visit www.leafletdrop.co.uk or email leafletdrop@whistl.co.uk

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Top tips for an effective leaflet campaign

Make an impact You only have seconds tomake an impact before you are assigned to the dustbin so it’s essential you achieve stand-out on the doormat whether it’s an eye-catching headline, free offer, memorable design or unusual shape.

Be sensational Think about appealing to all five senses with your creative tomake it morememorable. Engaging the senses through touch, taste, sight, sound and smell will help to create more emotive connections and a more interactive brand experience.

Keep it simple You should leave the recipient in no doubt what your brand is and what it is you’re offering, so you need to keep themessage clear, simple and compelling. If you try to convey too many messages, you wont achieve cut-through or get the best results.

Get them to take action When you include a call to action, be very clear about what youwant the recipient to do next. Give a precise deadline for customers to respond by andmake it obvious how youwant themto respond, whether it’s to visit your store, go online or give you a call. For more information and advice on creating leaflet campaigns give our doordrop teama call today

Make it desirable One of the best ways to boost

on 01628 816611 or email leafletdrop@whistl.co.uk

response is to include an incentive like amoney-off promotion, discount code or information that will be of value and retained by the recipient. Giving the consumer a reward for looking at your leaflet will ultimately help increase sales and brand recall.

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Whistl Magazine • Summer 2018

Industry research

Consumers spend over £2 billion on subscriptions

49% OF BRITS ADMIT TO BUYING ITEMS THEYWOULDN’T HAVE IF THEY HADN’T SUBSCRIBED £18m BRUMMIES ARE THEBIGGEST FANSOF SUBSCRIPTIONS SPENDINGONAVERAGE £18MPER YEAR 25% OF HEALTH-CONSCIOUS SHEFFIELDERS SUBSCRIBE TO SNACK COMPANY GRAZE

British consumers are spending on average over £2 billion a year onmonthly delivery subscription packages even though one in five say they don’t use the services they’ve signed up for. Our research revealed that although there are several reasons behindpeople opting in to such services, convenience (45%) andvalue formoney (60%) were two of the keydrivers, althoughalmost 20% said they signeduppurely for thenovelty of receiving items through thepost. Fromdiscounted delivery and art and craft supplies to snack-sized health foods and curated beauty boxes, subscriptions are an increasingly common way for consumers to buy services online. According to our survey, Amazon Prime is themost favoured subscription package with 61.4% of participants saying that they had signed up to the service. Other popular services include healthy desk-snack company Graze (12.3%), nextunlimited (9.7%), ASOS Premier (8.8%), Pact Coffee (8.5%) and beauty brand Glossybox (7.8%). It’s great news for retailers. Almost half of participants admitted buying products they wouldn’t have otherwise bought if they hadn’t signed up for the service. It’s also good news for consumers who can make significant savings. For instance Amazon Prime alone can save those who subscribe up to £165 per year.

Demand is high for more options when it comes to delivery subscriptions, with those surveyed stating their wish for coffee pods, vape liquid, fashion accessories (scarves and handbags) and even Disney related items on amonthly subscription. Melanie Darvall, Director of Marketing and Communications at Whistl, said: “It’s great to see the rise in popularity of monthly subscription services and how they’re benefitting both businesses and subscribers. “It’s not surprising that value for money and convenience are hugely important to British consumers, just as quality and savings through discounts are. Getting this balance right is essential if you’re to secure a loyal customer base that is happy to spendmoney on products not included in themonthly ‘taster’ service. “A reliable fulfilment and delivery service is key to ensuring customer satisfaction, and that’s whereWhistl can really add value. Our expertise in ecommerce fulfilment combinedwith our highly efficient national and international network gives both businesses and consumers the choices and options they’re looking for.” To find out more about our fulfilment and parcel delivery services visit www.whistl.co.uk or email moreinfo@whistl.co.uk

18% OF PEOPLE THAT LIVE IN CARDIFF ENJOY A GIN SUBSCRIPTION BOX

TOP 10 SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES

1. Amazon Prime

61% 12% 10%

2. Graze

3. Next Unlimited 4. ASOS Premier

9% 9% 8% 8% 7% 6% 6%

5. Pact Coffee 6. Glossy Box

7. London Tea Club

8. Tipplebox

9. Craft Gin Club

10. Birchbox

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Whistl Magazine • Summer 2018

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Whistl Magazine • Summer 2018

News

Cornwall sees new wave of postal services

Great news!Whistl has joined forceswith Imprimus, Cornwall’s largest printing solutions company, to create a newmail andparcel collection and consolidation service, Cornwall Collects. Thatmeans local Cornishbusinesses andonline retailers of all sizeswill be able toenjoy the samecost- saving benefits as other bulkmail senders do through DownstreamAccess, aswell as theconvenienceof regular collections. The partnershipmeans that smaller businesses will be able to send their mail and parcels alongside the onemillion letters and parcels Imprimus mail out from their Redruth headquarters every week, providing a cost-effective alternative to Royal Mail’s 2nd class post service. With collection vans initially serving routes across Bodmin, Camborne, Liskeard, Redruth, St Austell and Truro, the service is now live and already helping Cornwall Council cut costs and streamline their outboundmail processes across six key council offices. Tony Plummer, Managing Director of Imprimus said: “Cornwall is home tomany successful businesses, but as 90%of thememploy fewer than 9 employees, most can’t get the bulk postage discounts that big corporations out of county take for granted. By teaming up, we can level that playing field and provide local businesses with an effective alternative. “Although costs will vary by volume and location, we estimate thatmost businesses could save around 10% compared to standard Royal Mail 2nd class postage costs – and it’smore convenient, too. In short, nobody need use a frankingmachine, or visit the post office anymore.” Nigel Polglass Chief Operating Officer of Whistl added: “Whistl has always been a champion for business efficiency and has a track record of bringing the benefits large businesses can access to thewider business community. We are delighted to beworking with Imprimus to bring the benefits of DownstreamAccess bulkmail and parcel services toCornwall for the first time. Now, small online retailers and ebay sellers will be able to enjoy the cost and service efficiencies currently only experienced by larger companies.” For more information about Cornwall Collects email moreinfo@whistl.co.uk

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Whistl Magazine • Summer 2018

Can we do more for you?

Offering UK organisations an innovative range of economic and efficient mail delivery services.

• Pre-sorted mail • Unsorted mail

• International mail • Hybrid mail

National delivery services for UK organisations sending parcels with a range of delivery options.

• Tracked • International parcels

• Pre-sorted • Unsorted

Outsource your complete fulfilment requirements to us or we can build a bespoke solution from our portfolio.

• Fulfilment & warehousing • Logistics management

• IT Solutions • Customer support

TO FIND OUT MORE Existing customers contact your account manager New customers call us on 01628 861503 e-mail whistl.magazine@whistl.co.uk visit www.whistl.co.uk

A range of services for sending mail and parcels overseas.

• Pre-sorted • Registered

• Unsorted • Tracked parcel services

We hope you enjoy readingWhistl Magazine. If you’d like us to feature anything in particular in future issues, or would like to feature as a case study please get in touch using the following contact details.

End-to-end management of doordrop campaigns using analytical insights to target the households you most want to reach, helping your media spend go further.

email whistl.magazine@whistl.co.uk write Rina Maisuria, Whistl UK Ltd, Meridian House,

Fieldhouse Lane, Marlow, Buckinghamshire, SL7 1TB

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Whistl Magazine • Summer 2018

Returnaddress:Whistl UK Ltd, Meridian House, Fieldhouse Lane, Marlow, Buckinghamshire, SL7 1TB

The friendly face of fulfilment

If you’re looking to grow your online retail business with the support of professional people who understand your business, our friendly fulfilment team can help. From storage to pick, pack and despatch plus customer service, you can outsource as much or as little as you need. We’ll tailor a solution that suits you. Naturally you can expect great service from a team committed to giving you and your customers the best possible experience.

Call 01628 861503 e-mail whistl.magazine@whistl.co.uk visit www.whistl.co.uk/fulfilment

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