2013 Widdowson Group Liveried Scania P320 Lorry

Widdowson Group was a family owned and operated company in the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

logistics industry. They offered various services based around the

Logistics Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. In a general business sense, logistics manages the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the requirements of ...

industry and Road Transportation services. The company entered administration in 2017.

History

Established in the early 1900s as A.M. Widdowson and Son, the Widdowson Group haulage business worked locally, moving coal within the

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

area. By the late 1980s, the company expanded into an organisation that was providing services throughout the whole of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

. The Widdowson Group operated through six separate trading divisions: logistics warehousing, contract packing, transport, freight forwarding, pallet repair, garage services and a commercial training academy.

Divisions

;Traffic (Transport, Haulage, Groupage, deliveries): Road transport was the biggest Division of The Widdowson Group with a fleet with over 130 vehicles, mostly local businesses. The fleet extended from panic vans to 44 tonne artics and includes over 200 trailers. The division operates as two functions ''Groupage'' and ''Full Loads''. ''Full Loads'' is where an entire vehicle is loaded for a single purpose, usually a single delivery. ''Groupage'' works on the basis of multi-client and multi-drops per vehicle. ;Warehouse (Warehousing, Storage): The

Warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities ...

Division was based over several sites and rivaled the Traffic Division for the biggest turnover. The Widdowson Group had three warehouse sites operating over 700,000 sq. ft. of warehousing offering dedicated or shared user storage facilities in racked or bulk configuration on a contractual or short-term basis. The warehouse systems utilised EDI solutions with integrated RF and barcode scanning in their WMS supplied by Road Tech. Widdowson Group often tailored warehousing solutions to the customers they were dealing with, for historical customer PepsiCo the Widdowson Group dedicated a whole warehouse for that client. Where as the warehousing service offered to

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was that they stored pallets of their products goods amongst other customer's pallets. ;Freight (International Freight, Freight Forwarding, World Shipping, VAT Receipt): The

Freight Cargo consists of bulk goods conveyed by water, air, or land. In economics, freight is cargo that is transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. ''Cargo'' was originally a shipload but now covers all types of freight, including tran ...

Office offered a range of international services such as import,

export An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is an ...

and bonded warehousing. ;Garage (Vehicle Maintenance): Originally established to maintain and service Widdowson's own fleet of

vehicles A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), ...

and

trailers Trailer may refer to: a Transportation * Trailer (vehicle), an unpowered vehicle pulled by a powered vehicle ** Bicycle trailer, a wheeled frame for hitching to a bicycle to tow cargo or passengers ** Full-trailer ** Semi-trailer **Horse trail ...

, the Garage Division was an established commercial vehicle center. The Widdowson Group also offered personal car repairs for friends and family of the Widdowson Group. ;Contract Pack (Rework, Added Value, Contract Packing, Reverse Logistics, Hand assembly ): This was the fastest growing Division of the Widdowson Group concentrating on added value tasks such as the repackaging, barcoding, inspection and labeling of goods. An example of the Contract Packing operation was when the Widdowson Group package Christmas gift-packs for

Boots UK Boots UK Limited (formerly Boots the Chemists), trading as Boots, is a British health and beauty retailer and pharmacy chain in the United Kingdom and other countries and territories including Ireland, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Thail ...

, the Contract Packing department took the raw products (often toiletries) and packed them into a decorative gift box along with extra gift items like socks. ;Training (Training School, Driver Training): The Commercial Training Academy offered LGV C, C+E courses and FLT training to both paying public looking to start a new career, private companies looking to develop internal staff and internally to train and retrain staff. One of the main focuses of the internal aspect of the training department is to improve the lorry drivers' emissions. ;Pallet Repair: The Widdowson Group generated a profit from a pallet repair operation, where teams of its staff repaired damaged pallets to be used again.

Locations

Glenfield, Leicestershire Glenfield is a large village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Glenfields, in the Blaby district of Leicestershire, England. At the 2011 Census, Glenfields had a population of 9,643. Its located at the northwestern fringe of the ...

* Braunstone, Leicester *

Bardon, Coalville Bardon is a civil parish and former village in North West Leicestershire about southeast of the centre of Coalville. The parish includes Bardon Hill, which at above sea level is the highest point in Leicestershire. With the population remainin ...

Memberships and Affiliates

BSI, UKWA, RHA, BIFA, BCMPA, RMIF, DSA Widdowson Group had been executive box holders at Leicester City F.C. since the 1990s and are one of the longest serving executive box holders at the club. Widdowson Group were part of the consortium of 55 parties led by Gary Lineker who invested money to rescue the club from Administration in 2003.

References

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External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20170623072410/http://www.widdowson-group.com/ * http://www.widdowson-group.co.uk * http://www.mhwmagazine.co.uk/news-item.asp?id=4222 * http://www.industrialfocus.co.uk/page.php?issue=4376 * http://www.xerox.com/downloads/world/x/XGS_CS_Widdowson_gb.pdf * http://www.poferrymasters.com/news/BiggerUKhubsignalsgrowthforPOFM Companies based in Leicestershire 2010s disestablishments 1902 establishments