Company profile: Business Express
Business Express has seen the number of its external customers fall from 1,100 to just 250 in the past 18 months. On the surface this sounds like a terrible fall. But Mick Janicki managing director, is delighted. For both revenue and profits are up and the fall in number of customers is part of its plan to restructure the company. Despite its name, Business
Express is a major player in the home delivery market. It is a big operation with 33 depots,
2,000 vehicles, and it can deliver between 200,000 and 400.000 parcels a day depending on the season. As well as deliveritrg goods for Littlewoods Business Express decided to offer the delivery service to external customers.
"We dabbled in the commercial world but it was very much a scatter gun approach. We would cany anything from wine, to plastic bins and pet food. Anything you wanted delivering to your home we would go and get the deal." says Janicki
Business Express gained 1,100 external customers and was carrying anything from a jar of jam to a full trailer of wine or even bird seed. "We carried without a real understanding of the cost to serve. We knew how much it cost to move a Littlewoods parcel, and so we applied the same kpi [Key performance indicator] to a crate of wine or a big black dustbin." he says.
Janicki has a strong parcels background. He learned the business at TNT. Then moved to Parceline where became a regional manager and later a national operations manager, before he moved to United Carrier as national operations director. He worked on the sale of United Carriers to Geodis and after a further six months Littlewoods approached him.
He joined Business Express 18 months ago after a year with United Carriers (Now Geodis United Distribution). Janicki says: "It was a major culture shock for the senior managers to find that I am as operator who understands the business. That’s down to my Parceline training which is very good. I appeared in their depots asking why this or that parcel had not made a delivery, and asking what they were working on or what plans and targets they had set. They were very, very green".
Within three months Business Express senior management had been restructured. Christine Key, who had worked with Janicki for more than ten years came in as sales and marketing director, while Mark Edwards with whom Janicki had worked with at Parceline previously, came in as the general manager of operations. Brian Gunton was one of the previous team who stayed.
The new strategy was straightforward: Business Express would go for quality while reviewing every commercial account. Janicki believed that the business had not been service driven and had instead looked after its pennies at the risk of not meeting customer needs.
Janicki sees himself as a football coach. "I treat every thing as a game of football, Get the players kicking the ball the same way and you end up winning the game. That is a sim- plistic view of life but that is how it is." Which team does Janicki support) Yes, Manch-
ester United of course, but he works in Liverpool.
"The change in style was tough. A training programme was created for departmental managers to encourage them to be more like a managing director than a figure head. "It was about teaching them first and then empowering them to make a difference." says Janicki Eighteen months down the line and having just done our third set of business reviews, the distance our management has travelled from those horrible business reviews they had to attend is enormous," he says.
"Our strategy is to be the supplier of service to the regular shipper whose produce matches our core activities. Paint and trees do not mix with clothing. Videos, books, CDs, and chocolates are the kind of things we are into," says Janicki. It also does flatpack furniture using two man crews. There is a new sales force. "These are very professional
individuals who talk at boardroom level and about million pound accounts as opposed to opening Yellow Pages and trying to find a lead."
While the initial change is now complete. Janicki has plenty more plans to keep the business growing. The majority of Business Express deliveries are within 48 hours of the
goods being ordered. But from next month it is offering a next day service, using the Kidderminster depot as a hub.
"The jury is still out on how important next day is. Certainly for the mobile phone industry
that is the key." Woolworth’s Direct and Thornton chocolates may also use the new service. Business Express has also invested £8m in a track and trace system that should be available to every customer by the end of July. A signature will be collected at the doorstep and the delivery can be tracked via the internet. Also under review is whether it offers either morning or afternoon deliveries (just naming the day is currently standard) and whether it moves to offer a six-days-a-week delivery service. A trial of evening deliveries is currently being carried out. "Another carrier has suspended its evening offer, " says Janicki. "We are thinking of going out between 5pm and 10pm with our evening offer."
"The home delivery market is very different from the business market served by the major parcels companies," says Janicki. "For a start there is much less choice in provider. A customer in the parcels market could have the choice of between 10 to 15 carriers. You have only three real specialists in the home delivery market. There are many out there having a go but the real specialists are Business Express, White Arrow and Parcelforce."
Janicki places Business Express at the top end of that list. "I like to say we are not the
cheapest home delivery company. I would rate us as the quality home deliverer, we offer 48-hour deliveries while the others take three to five days and to give that quality and those service levels means there is a cost.
Large commercial customers who have joined us recently have taken large increases in the rates they were paying but found it necessary to come to us because of the demands of their customers. It is the service level that drives their business."
Janicki has ambitious plans. He talks of growing revenue from its extental business year-on-year by 45%. A recent research report from the Verdict organisation praised the changes at Business Express.
"Eighteen months ago when I joined I said the business was a sleeping giant," he says. "I think it has woken up and the potential that this business has got is very, very exciting.
We have seen major improvements in the cost performance of Business Express. We are very kpi driven under my leadership. We measure everything. I branded every person in this company with three letters: MAP. They mean measurable; accoutstable; profitable. And that keeps them
very, very focused."
