From home to modern office: Midland’s logistics firm celebrates huge milestone
In just 10 years, Baxter Freight have gone from working out of founder Ian Baxter’s home, to a modern office in Nottingham, hiring over 140 staff, becoming UK Sales Partner of DHL, and aims to turn over £40 million this year.
On average, 60 per cent of UK startups fail within the first three years, but Baxter Freight has been able to bypass this, and become a recognised and established brand in the logistics industry.
With a focus on high levels of customer service, Baxter Freight pride themselves on creating innovative solutions for their network of global customers.
During their 10 years, Baxter Freight have seen huge political and social changes. From Brexit to the Covid-19 pandemic, the expertise of Baxter Freight’s employees allowed them to maintain high levels of service to their customers and provide innovative solutions.
In 2020 alone, almost 11 per cent of UK businesses stopped trading, but as the world relies on logistics, Baxter Freight had to be creative in their approach to any curveballs that came their way.
Ian Baxter, chair, said: “Some of my standout moments of the last 10 years have to be the way our team dealt with Brexit and Covid.
"Both of these things were such difficult times to navigate for so many, but we managed to make this a positive for the business. I’m really proud that we were able to work through Covid without making any redundancies or putting our employees on furlough.
"Then, during a global pandemic, Brexit was happening! During these turbulent times, our resilience and values were tested a lot. I witnessed standout performances from all of the team, who were able to turn chaos into order – in a word, they were extraordinary.
"I’m also so proud of all the people that make up Baxter Freight. So many people have been with us from the very beginning, and they’ve felt empowered to take the job and run with it, to make it their own.”
Within the future, the business is focusing on how they can increase the visibility of sustainability within logistics, through partnering with Nottingham Trent University for their Sustainable Freight Network.
The introduction of Scope 3 Reporting and new EU legislation, including the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive means that more than ever, sustainability needs to be at the forefront of businesses minds.
Peter Isler, managing director, said: “Supply chains are not just physical, but also cultural. At Baxter Freight, our service includes going above the terms and conditions, and that will remain in the future.
"I also see our future in ensuring continuity of collaboration and working with businesses that align with our culture and values. From the get-go we’ve invested so much into departments like IT and Marketing, and from them we’ve been getting invaluable insights which we’re able to shape to deliver both solutions and advice to our customers, partners and suppliers, and within the future, I see this growing even more.”