Wraps come off £15m APC Overnight HQ
Bosses have taken the wraps off their new £15 million headquarters in Staffordshire, showing off the building to 400 depot chiefs at a presentation.
Parcel giant APC Overnight moved its annual all-depots' meeting on Saturday from the company's Essington site to the new Cannock-based national sorting centre, even though it is not yet open, so that staff could look around ahead of the launch. The meeting was followed in the evening by a black-tie awards dinner at the Hilton Metropole Hotel in Birmingham.
APC Overnight has 115 independent depots around the UK which collect and distribute parcels on behalf of the business. Representatives meet annually to discuss operations.
The move from the Warstone Road plant in Essington will be a significant milestone for the company.
The finishing touches are currently being made to the new HQ, covering 138,000sq ft, which was purpose-built at the Kingswood Lakeside Business Park in response to a growth of up to 18 per cent in the business.
The transformation of the former open cast coal mine site will allow the firm to double its capacity from handling 1.5 million items a month to three million.
The company is the UK's largest independent next-day parcel delivery firm with recently published pre-tax profits of £4.42million in 2011-12, a rise of just over 30 per cent on the previous year.
Tara Barnes, head of sales and marketing, said: "This was a chance to showcase our new national sortation centre. We had business to attend to but there was also a chance to look around. Everyone was most impressed with what they saw.
"The awards dinner in the evening was an opportunity to say a big thank you and well done to everyone involved with the company. The whole day was a real celebration."
Figures released in January showed the firm had enjoyed its best trading in 19 years with a 30 per cent rise in deliveries in December compared to the previous year. Staffing levels were increased by 18 per cent to deal with the busy Christmas period.
Part of the success is down to the rise in internet shopping and the millions of parcels that were sent around the country.
APC has been setting new records over the past 18 months. In December last year bosses announced their busiest ever night, processing more than 135,000 deliveries in 24 hours.
The firm increases staffing levels by up to a fifth at some of its 115 depots across the country over the Christmas period.
Chief Syed Ziaullah said the new building would allow APC to continue to grow.
"The new facility is being built in response to a 15 to 18 per cent growth in the business," he said.
