Wincanton goes solo

The management of Wincanton had been waiting keenly ftr the day they would be given the independence to run the company based on their own logistics experience and instincts. That day came on 18 May when the logistics operator dermerged from its parent, convenience foods business Uniq.
“We have always been a small part of what was fundementally a food company,” explained Graeme McFaull, MD of Wincanton 's Consumer Logistics division. “Vhilst this brought business our way it did have its limitations in that we would be competing for cai)ital with sister companies who were fundamentally manufacturers in a food manufacturing group; therefore we always felt slightly subsidiary to their requirements.”
Despite tile availability of cal)itai for organic growth whenever necessary, funds were tougher to come by for some of tile acquisitions Wincanton had courted. “We felt that to be independent we would be a core business. in charge of our own destiny with shorter lines of decision making, therefore we would be more responsive to our customers’ needs and would have the flexibility to make decisions that are fundamental to growth,” McFaulh explained.
Uniq, meanwhile, wanted to focus on convenience food manufacturing, having in tile previous year disposed of its dairy business. It felt that with a good track record over the last five years, Wincanton was big enough to stand on its own two feet.
Wincanton’s management structure, led by chief executive, Chas Lawrence, remains the same. The two operating units:
C nsumer and Industrial also remain but the overlap between the two divisions, where they share sonic common customers, is to be encouraged. “Increasingly, we want to be seen as one business,” added McFaull.
"The denierger iias allowed us to build a profile rather than being seen as a side issue to Uniq,” said McFaull. The increased profile is meant notjust to attract customers but also the ‘fuel’ for growth from the City.
Wincanton’s relationship with its former siblings Malton Foods (Wincanton runs facilities for this bacon business) and St Ivel is now contractual, just like any other third party company.
“There’s no real change,” McFaull pointed out. “We always dealt oii a formal basis. Our relationship with sibling companies in the past was less than 10% of turnover. They continue to be key customers for us.”
Looking to the future, McFaull said: “This year is important fir us. It’s our first year arid the future is looking pretty good. We have some interesting projects that are coming to fruition.
“Really, this year is all about steadying the ship, bringing in the growth that we have in the pipeline, continuing to fuel tile traditional pipeline we’ve had for the last five years. Importantly its about doing things differently: not turning our back oii traditional business but beginning to try and explore different activities beyond what we’ve traditionally done.” These new capabilities are designed to add value to existing customers and will new clients.
For example, blue chip clients are importing a lot of product, predominately from the far east. “They have riot yet got a sophisticated in-bound suppiv chain, that’s something which we are working with them to explore. Were working on the concept of joint ventures and alliances with freight forwarding and shipping companies.’ Wincanton is currently working on a couple of projects but is unwilling to announce anything yet. “It’s an exciting illustration of 110W we are trying to look outside the box arid do things differently to deliver value to the supply chain of existing customers. We hope that can deliver new customers to us.”
Geography is tile logical gap in Wincanton’s business. The largely UK based operator is competing in a world where many rivals are obtaining half or more of their revenue from overseas. Tile requirement for pan-European solutions is growing.
McFaull explained: “We have been hesitaut to rush into Europe righitly or wrongly;
we watched our competitors make some wrong decisionis. At some point, however, you have to step of the diving board.
"We’re at the point where we have a very solid
UK business in which we still think there (potentially) is a lot of growth.
"However, the time has come when we feel confident enough to move into Europe, particularly on the manufacturing side of our business — where we have a lot of multinationals amid where we offer a solution that is easy to replicate on tile continient.”
This solution, according to McFaull, focuses on the company’s automated warehousing experience.
"We have more automated warehousing experience than any of our competitors. We need to exploit that inito Europe.
“Clearly in the medium term, by that I mean three years or so, we will have a presence on the continent. Either we will do something with existing customers and therefore its organic or we are talkinig to a couple of companies at tile moment that could lead to an acquisition, ajoint venture or an alliance.” Wincaiiton’s new independemice allows it to be open minded about this.
“If we didn’t do anything arid just rested where we are then clearly we would be vulnerable. It’s not our intention obviously to rest where we are. There is an expansionist aspect to Europe and there is a defensive aspect to Europe. If I take anyone of our big FMCC companies I don’t think they would be attracted to Wincanton in the future if we don’t have that dimension. So it’s a double edged sword — it’s defensive as well as opportunistic.
“We’ve got to grow and we’re confident we can. If we even continue tile growth we’ve had in the last five years that would be a success but I don’t think we would be comitent with that.”