Life doesn’t get any better than this, enter baby Maddox Riley. Huge congratulations to Laura (hurry back we’re missing you) and Ben on the wonderful arrival of their beautiful baby boy, who weighed in at a very surprising 9lb 1oz! Not sure where he was hiding, as those that saw Laura in her last few weeks, commented on her modest and neat bump. We cant wait for a cuddle Laura, when are you bringing Maddox to meet us???
Leading insulation manufacturer Isover, part of the global Saint Gobain group, has awarded a five-year transport contract worth approximately £15 million to CM Downton. The contract was finalised following a competitive tender during which Isover identified that Downton could offer an innovative solution that delivers value and stability to support its growing business requirement. Downton has taken on the management, transport and shunting teams from the previous transport provider under TUPE regulations and also acquired a number of Isover-liveried trailers.
Isover manufactures a range of mineral wool insulation products at its factory in Runcorn, Cheshire. This is located just 400m from Downton’s own facility in the town, which presented an opportunity to configure an innovative transport solution. The previous transport provider had co-ordinated the operations of its own fleet and multiple sub-contractors to arrange the collection of loads from the factory. With limited space on the site for loading, and little room for expansion as production volumes grow, this led to some scheduling issues and periods of congestion which put a strain on deliveries. Downton offered an alternative solution whereby finished products are shunted directly from the factory store to its own facility where there is more room for loading and future expansion. This eliminates the need for delivery vehicles to visit the factory which has significantly reduced the number of movements on site, leading to simpler administrative and health and safety compliance processes.
John Pointon, supply chain manager at Isover UK, commented: “CM Downton’s commitment to improving the customer experience is aligned with our own service charter and will ensure our products are delivered as quickly as possible and on time. Downton was able to demonstrate innovation and value that will support Isover’s ongoing business growth with added stability. Part of the transfer to CM Downton will include updated branding to 20 of Isover’s trailers in line with the company’s new Sound Good Factor campaign.”
Downton has configured the operation with a core fleet supported with resources from its wider network. The company ensures a high proportion – typically over 90 per cent – of loads are transported using its own vehicles which makes it inherently simpler to co-ordinate all aspects of the contract with greater consistency and transparency than the previous operation. The operation involves daily deliveries of between 30 and 35 loads of palletised slab and roll insulation weighing up to 10 tonnes. These are delivered as full and multi-drop loads to Isover’s building trade customers and other stockists.
The contract was awarded in December 2016 with Downton taking over full operations at the end of May 2017. During a relatively complex transition period, Downton completed the transfer of the previous transport supplier’s team of managers, drivers and shunters under TUPE regulations. The negotiations also resulted in the transfer of 20 Isover-liveried teardrop trailers from the previous supplier to Downton. The company offered transport support during the transfer period to ensure a smoother transition, including handling around 20 per cent of capacity in the month before the actual go-live date, and providing some storage capacity over the Christmas period.
David Hutchings, Head of Business Development at CM Downton, said: “The length of contract is unusual but we were able to demonstrate innovation and value that will support Isover’s ongoing business growth with added stability. There are commercial and operational benefits of doing an extended deal for both sides. Saint Gobain and Isover saw that we are a solid business who can offer strategic support over the longer term. This was a challenging and complex transfer but it was completed seamlessly, the ramp-up has gone exceptionally well and the support we gave ahead of go-live demonstrates our flexible and can-do attitude.”
Jannette Wallace, Runcorn Depot Manager for major Gloucester-based transport business CM Downton, has won the Leader Award in the Freight category of the Freight Transport Association’s prestigious Everywoman in Transport & Logistics Awards 2017.
Purple Marketing worked closely with CM Downton to prepare the successful submission before the award was presented at a gala lunch in London on Wednesday 21 June. Now in their tenth year these major industry awards recognise twelve of the most inspirational role models in the UK’s transport and logistics industry. These women are recognised as the finest in their field, from individuals making significant improvements to road and rail infrastructure to those renovating intricate warehouse logistics.
Jannette Wallace joined Downton twelve years ago when the company had just one contract in the North West. Since then, she has helped the business grow and today, as manager of the Runcorn depot, she is responsible for a team of over 200, including a 106-truck fleet, serving seven main regional contracts and a 10 acre site incorporating a 90,000ft2 warehouse. The site’s revenues have risen six-fold in the past five years.
Jannette Wallace said: “I’m thrilled to win this award and be recognised among other women taking leadership roles and making a difference in the transport sector. I have always advocated opportunities for women in our industry and encourage colleagues to do the same.”
John Downton, Operations Director at CM Downton, said: “We’re so pleased for Jannette because it recognises the tremendous success she has achieved since joining our business. The contribution she has made since 2005 demonstrates the expertise and professionalism needed to succeed in the modern transport industry. In addition to building her own successful career she has mentored and motivated a number of our apprentices – women and men – to develop their own skills and careers at Downton.”
Congratulations to our client, The Cartwright Group, who are finalists for the Technical Excellence Award at this year’s Motor Transport Awards.
Productivity-boosting and service-focused innovations developed by Altrincham-based Cartwright Group for transport and logistics businesses and other commercial vehicle operators have been recognised with a shortlisting in the Technical Excellence category at this year’s Motor Transport Awards. These annual awards celebrate achievement, leadership and success in the road transport industry which constitutes a major part of the UK economy.
“As a leading commercial vehicle body, trailer and conversion manufacturer we attribute much of our reputation, growth and success to our innovative approach,” says Mark Cartwright, managing director at Cartwright Group. “We are delighted that new products and services devised by our teams to anticipate and fulfil market requirements have been shortlisted for these prestigious awards.
New product and service innovations have been introduced by every part of the Cartwright Group in the past year. Cartwright Trailers, for example, has developed a completely new trailer concept called the Streetwise that makes it easier, quicker and safer for suppliers to make kerbside deliveries to retailers on busy and congested high streets. Other innovations have reduced the weight, increased the carrying capacity and improved the streamlining of trailers while enhancing loading flexibility to maximise productivity and minimise running costs.
Cartwright Fleet Services has developed the unique web-enabled YourFleet Live service that provides transport operators of all sizes with unprecedented real-time access to detailed information about vehicle utilisation, status and service history for optimum operational efficiency and flexibility and to ensure compliance with regulations and laws.
Cartwright Rentals has devised its new FleetFlex service that provides operators with complete flexibility to scale the size of their fleets to current demand, for example during seasonal or unexpected peaks, without traditional storage, maintenance and ownership overheads.
Cartwright Conversions has developed a number of innovative solutions for customers, including a unique new mobile banking concept that is being introduced by a major high street bank to support customers with no local banking access and welfare vehicles with unique design features that provide essential rest and relief facilities for workers at remote locations.
Cartwright Group continues to experience considerable growth across all part of its business as the company secures new contracts for its products and services with customers ranging from the largest transport and distribution operators to independent businesses with smaller fleets and single vehicles.
The winners of the 2017 Motor Transport Awards will be announced at a special event in London on 5 July. The Cartwright Group has enjoyed considerable success at previous events, most recently winning the Apprenticeship of the Year Award last year for its training and development programmes for young employees.
We have had a busy lead up to this year’s CV Show with a 600m2 stand that we designed, built and supported at the NEC last week for our client, The Cartwright Group.
The three-day exhibition was our most successful show to date and this was the largest stand that The Cartwright Group had exhibited. We included hosting areas within the stand for the different companies within The Group, with space for Cartwright Conversions, Cartwright Rentals, Cartwright Finance and Cartwright Fleet Services along with converted vehicles and liveried trailers. Alongside this we created brochures for each section of the Group alongside individual product specification sheets and organised some giveaways in the shape of chocolate trucks, which were extremely well received!
Our barista skills were once again put to the test and we had a great time working alongside The Group.
The Purple Team recently carried out a photoshoot at Jigsaw Transport for new projects that will be launching soon.
It was a busy day at the head office in Ashby-de-la-Zouch and with a wide variety of shots taken, we are excited to see the end results!
The Purple Team recently spent a day filming at Mercedes-Benz Trucks to support the imminent launch of a new, national GenuineParts repositioning project.
“A long but very productive day – our client Sam was a bit of an expert and very well versed which made our job so much easier – I think this was a record for the least outtakes in the two hour ‘talking head’ session!” said Debbi Hutt, Director at Purple Marketing.
Downton moves to Purple for their Marketing & PR
C M Downton is one of the UK’s leading independent logistics firms with over 600 tractor units and 1,800 trailers operating out of ten major distribution centres across the UK.
Downton is the parent company of Jigsaw Transport; a 4th party logistics provider offering large-scale managed transport solutions, who have been a client of Purple’s for more than 5 years.
This is an exciting opportunity for Purple and one that we are really looking forward to. Our experience and expertise in the logistics arena means we can hit the ground running to fully support and enhance Downton’s plans for growth and continued leadership in the warehouse and distribution sector.
We are delighted to be appointed by the Cartwright Group as their marketing partner.
The privately owned family business – based in Cheshire – is the UK’s leading CV body and trailer manufacturer. Trading since 1952, Cartwright provides a complete solution from design, manufacture and conversions to fleet management, finance and rental.
Purple recently worked with the Cartwright Group to secure them a win at the Motor Transport Awards in one of the most popular and competitive categories, Apprenticeship of the Year.
We are thrilled to be working with Mark and the Team at Cartwright – who recently were recognised as a Sunday Times ‘Top 10 Rising Company’ – and to have the opportunity to apply our specialist CV skills and experience.
