Europa Worldwide Group “reaping the benefits” of restructuring
Europa Worldwide Group has reported that it is now starting to reap the benefits of what it describes as two complex years of restructuring. Europa’s Managing Director, Andrew Baxter, acquired the business in August 2013 with a 90% stake and set about overhauling the business in January 2014.
“Although the journey has been extremely complex, including some operational problems and significant reorganisation costs, the benefits are now being felt both internally and externally by customers,” said Europa Worldwide.
Major milestones in 2014 included construction starting on the business’ new £30m, 26,368 square metre logistics facility in Dartford, the biggest single investment in the company’s history.
The business also set to work expanding its UK footprint and reorganising its road freight sales and customer services functions.
Other developments included two new branches opening in Nottingham and Leeds, the expansion of the Southampton branch and the relocation of its Newcastle and Manchester sites.
“The new management took the decision to split the company into three clear operating divisions, Air & Sea, Warehouse and Road,” explained Europa Worldwide. “This created national structures split by activity, rather than the regionalised structures that existed previously.”
Also in 2014, Europa recruited software developers to create its new £1.7m road freight system, Leonardo, phase one of which is due to be completed in Q2 2016.
Europa reported a growth of 9% in turnover in 2014 but with profits down to £237k. Baxter commented: “The lower profit is directly related to restructuring costs, now that these short term costs are behind us we are seeing a strong recovery in profitability.”
Baxter added: “The past two years have been hard work but also very exciting. I believe the types of changes we have made would take many businesses 10 or 15 years to implement. Every step we have taken has been absolutely necessary to enable the company to continue to grow, but it has required significant investment and we have faced some difficult challenges. I am hugely grateful for the loyalty and commitment we have seen from all of our staff and most importantly our customers, who have stuck with us throughout the whole process. Despite the teething issues, we’ve pushed through the pain and now we are definitely feeling the benefit.”
Europa’s Dartford investment came to fruition in May this year when the business moved its entire operation and over 250 employees there from its previous site in Erith. The new site is now the UK’s largest European groupage hub which sees all 11 of Europa’s UK regional branches trunk directly into it. Launched on 1 August 2015, Europa channels all its volume through 1hub and has therefore been able to increase its number of direct, daily departures to the continent, with plans to switch all lines to daily over the next 12 months.
Its dedicated Air & Sea division has seen strong growth since its conception in 2014, reporting a 17% increase in its year on year volumes.
In closing the northern hub function the company transferred the vacated warehousing space into its logistics division. Europa has now filled this space and the additional warehouse space in Dartford, implementing a number of new long-term contracts including market-leading trade sector brands as well as blue chip companies.
