British express parcels carrier City Link has unveiled a new management team alongside managingdirector David Smith comprising several ex-Parcelforce Worldwide managers as it aims to complete
its financial turnaround this year.Smith, who had previously led the successful turnaround of Parcelforce, the Royal Mail parcelssubsidiary, was brought in by the company’s parent group Rentokil Initial last December to endyears of losses and turn around the major parcels firm. In 2011, the parcels firm made an adjustedoperating loss of £31.3 million on revenues of £307 million with lower volumes and falling averageprices.
Early this year Smith said he aimed to reduce losses quarter by quarter this year and return toprofit in the fourth quarter with a combination of cost reductions, good service performance andwinning new customers. The City Link chief wants to grow the company into a £500 million businesswithin the next three years.
City Link said yesterday that the company has now completed the recruitment of its managementboard “to drive the business forward and build on managing director David Smith’s mantra thatcustomers must come first”.
The new Operations Director is Adele Henderson, who joined the company in May from ParcelforceWorldwide where she was Operations Director and had been part of Smith’s turnaround team. “I amdelighted to be joining City Link at such an exciting time of its development and look forward tosuccessfully driving the business forward and further improving operational efficiency. I am agreat believer that a quality organisation doesn’t have to have huge operating costs. A qualityorganisation gets things right first time,” she declared.
The new Sales & Marketing Director Tim Brown is a well-known figure in the British parcelsand postal industry, having been Sales & Marketing Director at Parcelforce Worldwide during itssuccessful restructure, then at DHL before becoming Chief Executive of postal regulator PostCommuntil last year. “City Link has improved dramatically but there are big challenges ahead. I havefound the people in City Link committed and motivated to delivering great service. They have beenworking tirelessly throughout long periods of change to do their best for the business. I wouldlike to see City Link become a flexible, entrepreneurial, highly-profitable carrier, one thatcustomers will find easy to work with, one that you can rely on to get a job done,” he stated.
The latest permanent addition to the board is Jane Desmond, who was recently confirmed as CityLink’s Customer Care Director. She spent more than 24 years with Granada TV rentals’ logisticsoperation, then Protocol Training’s skills division, and bus and train operator First Group. Shejoined City Link in 2010 as a Regional Director and became Network Director for London/South Eastbefore being promoted to Interim Customer Care Director in February.
She said: “The things we are doing are starting to have an effect, there is no doubt about it.The business was very internally focused, but now it is focused on the customer and that has tocome from the leadership of the business.” Among the initiatives already underway is customerservice training for drivers, who are often the only representative of a brand that the endconsumer ever gets to meet.
Investments in IT such as hand-held devices for drivers, VanCam CCTV cameras in delivery vans,and GPS tracking are being used to help customers see where their parcels are; and all calls to thecustomer care centre are now centrally logged so customers can keep track of their complaints andqueries and insist on a case being re-opened if the answer is unsatisfactory, the company said.
The other board members are Finance Director Rob Peto, HR Director Scott Maynard, IT DirectorTony Frost and Programme Director James Coxon.
David Smith commented: “The new board is a powerful force with a skill set that will notonly play an integral part in taking this business forward but spearhead a culture change whichempowers the customer – a revolutionary vision, but one that is vital if the parcels market andCity Link is to meet the ever increasing demands of the customer.”
