UK Warehousing Awards Attract the Great and the Good of the Logistics Community

UK – A brass quintet in the auspicious surroundings of the Dorchester Hotel in London’s Park Lane set the mood for the annual United Kingdom Warehousing Association (UKWA) annual lunch and awards ceremony. Incredibly this was the 69th such meeting of the great and the good of Britain’s warehousing and logistics community and certainly things would have been very different at that first gathering, taking place as it did just as the tide of war, which had plagued the world for five long years, was turning, and the Battle of Normandy raged on, deciding the fate of a continent.

The event provides an informal occasion to meet and greet old friends and acquaintances and is an invaluable networking opportunity for the hundreds attending, many of whom were hoping to walk away with one of the nine regular awards. One certain winner was this year’s chosen charity Transaid, which, in addition to collecting a couple of thousand pounds donated by those present, managed to sign up six companies, Century Logistics, Knapp, Briggs Equipment, Bibby Distribution, Cascade and Angram, all of whom pledged at least £500 to supply bicycles to aid communities in Africa. Remember you still have a chance to swallow your pride, gird your loins and apply to join a Transaid event using the link on this page!

The event featured an exceptional set by comedian Simon Evans, he of ‘Live at the Apollo’ fame which followed a speech by Hans-Herbert Schultz, Managing Director of the events main awards partner Jungheinrich. The materials handling group is celebrating its 50th anniversary in the British market and Herr Schultz commented:

“We are very proud to have reached such a significant milestone in the UK and are looking forward to our next half century working closely with our customers. These Awards reward excellence in the third party logistics sector and attract entries from some of the most influential companies in the industry. UKWA’s Awards are now well established a symbols of achievement in the 3PL sector and emphasise the importance of logistics within today’s economy.”

This year’s Awards Winners were:

Best New UKWA Member – Sponsored by Toyota Material Handling: Gem Logistics

Environmental Award – Sponsored by lutterworth ecolighting: Miniclipper Logistics

Technical Innovation – Sponsored by RediGroup: Wiley with TGW Limited

Training Award – Sponsored by DP World London Gateway: Knights of Old

Team of the Year – Sponsored by Multimodal 2014: Century Logistics

Customer Service Award – Sponsored by Briggs Equipment UK: Bibby Distribution & Kellogg UK

Warehouse Manager of the Year – Sponsored by Knapp UK Ltd: Steven Vaughan of Expect Distribution

Young Employee of the Year – Sponsored by Hoppecke Industrial Batteries: Sam Greenhalgh of Simarco International

Junior Manager of the Year – Sponsored by Advanced Business Solutions: Marie Rickets of Bibby Distribution

Photo: Ian Veitch, stands between UKWA Chairman John Maguire and Simon Evans (far right) holding his UKWA’s Chairman’s Award, sponsored by Motorola Solutions, for his special contribution to the warehousing industry. Ian started with BRS before two years in business development with Exel logistics. He then became Sales and |marketing Director at Christian Salvesen until, in 1994 he moved on firstly with NYK and then as Managing Director of Yusen Logistics.