BIFA Awards
allow us to open up the wine market through our wet bond. “You cannot just be an old- fashioned freight forwarder,” Keens continued. “You need to offer extra services such as fulfilment, and you have to be flexible in what you offer. So we continuously develop For instance, business has grown such that Westbound now provides end-of-week departures as well as the Wednesday departures it had initially set up. Indeed, further expansion and more services are planned for 2023. Westbound will be investing in customer service, for instance, with a balance between technology and the personal touch always front of mind. Keens stressed that a retained customer is just as valuable as a new customer. “We see customers as partners. The more they benefit from our service, the better for them and the better for us,” he said. Elements align our services to satisfy our customers’ needs as they themselves evolve.” Looking back on how Westbound successfully set up the European operation, Keens said: “Everything aligned. First, we were fortunate to tap into our existing customer base. By definition, if someone imports things from the Far East, for instance, they will have other requirements too. “Second, there was the timing of it. Some people might ask who in their right mind would want to start up a European road freight service while Brexit was going on, but in fact it opened a lot of doors because everything was changing so much.” Although there are still “minor bumps in the road” relating to Brexit as the final implementations of the agreement are put into action this year, the situation seems to be more controlled now, and the establishment of free trade ports in the UK will create new avenues to explore. The third star that aligned for Westbound was its good fortune in finding the right staff with the right work ethic, which Keens said was Westbound’s biggest achievement. “It has been a whirlwind two- and-a-half years – but very rewarding,” he summed up.
Some of the team at Westbound’s Basildon head office
Stars align as Westbound sets up Europe operation
Westbound Logistics Services developed a thriving European operation from a standing start in 2021. Its success was crowned with BIFA’s 2022 European Logistics Award
shocks to the supply chain.” Westbound saw an opportunity to set up its own European operation. It found new staff, brought partners on board, and settled on Paris, Frankfurt and Munich for its European hubs. It also opened another UK office, in Manchester, to cope with what was obviously a growing market. Plus, Westbound established a presence in Portugal to service Europe from a different gateway. “Portugal is developing,” Keens stated. “It links up with Africa – as do our connections in Paris – there are feeder options to Latin America, and it has ocean gateways that will
W estbound set up its own operation in China in 2016, which provided the potential for e-commerce client opportunities in Europe, based largely on inventory management and distribution through online sales platforms. Initially, the UK was the hub for the company’s retail and ful fi lment business from China – but Brexit resulted in signi fi cant volumes being routed directly to Europe. Changing market Martin Keens, director of roadfreight and warehousing at Westbound, said the company had noticed increasing acquisitions, diminishing service levels and increasing automation on European services. At the same time: “A lot of manufacturing is coming back from China to North Africa and Eastern Europe. Markets within Europe are growing as people try to build contingencies in the face of high rates, COVID-19 and other
Martin Keens, Westbound
Logistics Services
European Logistics Award
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June 2023 | 21
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