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A LOCAL business franchise is succeeding thanks to family values.
UK Mail, at Brighouse, is part of UK Mail Group plc, offering parcel and mail delivery service throughout our area and the UK.
Barry Andrews has been running the franchise for more than 17 years.
Starting out in a 1000 sq ft building at Bailiff Bridge, he has grown the business moving, it to its current 17,000 sq ft premises at Brookfoot Business Park, Brighouse.
He has seen the number of parcels collected increase by more than 30 fold for destinations within the UK and worldwide.
Barry’s firm belief has always been in “keeping it in the family” and has seen the introduction of his son Tom, daughter Sally and nephew Stuart into the business.
They are anticipating continued growth this year despite the difficult economic trading conditions across the UK and Europe.
On top of this drive to include family employees, the franchise’s growth has allowed Barry to increase the number of local employees from just five to well over 40.
This includes a number of self-employed drivers who drive distinctive UK Mail liveried vans around Halifax, Huddersfield and Wakefield delivering and collecting parcels and mail for the UK and worldwide.
Barry has a simple business philosophy that he says has been the basis for his success.
“If you recruit the right people into your team and provide exceptional service, you will succeed and business will grow,” he said.
To underpin this philosophy a framed poster on the office wall proclaims: “Customers. Our greatest asset. Cherish them.”
The business points to this philosophy as central to their continued success.
Being a franchise the Brighouse business relies on the national reputation of UK Mail to provide reliable, flexible and competitively-priced parcel, mail and logistic services.
The company was the first to offer an alternative service to Royal Mail 40 years ago.
Starting off as a fledgling London-based taxi outfit called Yellow Express in the 70s, by 1987 it had already evolved into a national carrier offering time-sensitive deliveries UK-wide via a nationwide trunking operation.
It now has a national network of more than 55 sites and 2,500 vehicles.
Soon after it went global and in 1993 the company was floated on the stock exchange.
In 2003 it branched out into pallet delivery services and in 2004 made postal history by being the co-author of the first ever Downstream Access agreement with Royal Mail, effectively ending Royal Mail’s 370-year monopoly.
It’s now the largest UK operator, handling up to 16 million mail items a day.
The business has a range of new and innovative products transforming the face of the traditional mail market with the launch of new, next-generation mail solutions.
These include its groundbreaking imail product, which allows customers to enjoy the ease of electronic communication whilst maintaining the impact of physical mail.
Users can create, print, proof and post next-day mail to a UK-wide customer base – with just a few simple clicks of the mouse.
