Nightfreight aims for growth
Online shopping is helping to drive forward a business that employs around 1,000 people in the Black Country.Willenhall-based Nightfreight certainly looks set to prosper if new chief executive Steve Allen has anything to do with it, delivering goods to customers homes from clients including B&Q, Argos and John Lewis.
"We can carry anything from garden furniture, swimming pools, toys, barbecues, gym equipment, flatpack furniture and plasma televisions. And we will also provide an assembly and fitting service if that is what is required," he said.
Nightfreight is known for its IDW (irregular dimension and weight) service, or carrying "ugly" freight like tyres, plant and equipment, vehicle engines - big and heavy stuff. It also has a very strong logistics business, with a much-in-demand home delivery offer.
"We all talked about the internet bubble in the 90s, and that is happening now. All the online retailers are looking for credible national home delivery capabilities and we have, in the two-man delivery market, a very credible offer.
"We are the market leader in IDW, and we are retaining that position, with around 20 per cent of market share - it is the backbone of the business.
"What we intend to do is to use the infrastructure that our IDW operations gives, with 50 depots across the UK, a workforce of around 2,500 people -Êabout 1,000 of them in the Black Country, with our head office and hub in Willenhall, and another at Cannock," said Steve.
The home delivery business gave Nightfreight the chance to use its two-man delivery product across that existing network, and the chance to build on its recently-launched Pacemaker service - which he describes as the Rolls-Royce end of the home delivery market.
"This is, typically, handling pieces of very expensive furniture into clients' homes - it really is a white glove service. Our men will put mats down to walk through the homes, discuss where the product needs placing, unpackage it and then take the packaging materials away.
"More and more people are opting for that kind of service, and it is driven by a more expensive product range," he said.
Born and bred in the Black Country and now living in Cannock, Steve Allen moved into the hot seat at Nightfreight about four months ago, following a secondary management buyout and a change of shareholder.
"The business has gone through some hard times, with the industry itself suffering, as well as increasing fuel prices and a tightening of the market.
"In the last 18 months it has gone through a refinancing process, as well as there being a number of management changes, and it is those things that brought me into the frame," he said.
Nightfreight currently turns over around £135 million a year, and although not being in the super league, is one of the larger operators in the sector.
"With the way the marketplace is now going, we have some wonderful opportunities. We have seen some revenue growth in the last year of around six per cent, as well as some profit improvement. The challenge for us really is to develop the potential for home delivery.
"I believe that we have a great market position in terms of IDW and we will continue to build on that . We have a great product in terms of home delivery and pacemaker, and they are already growing substantially on the back of the surge in e-retailing," he added.
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