Melissa Gibbons, Managing Director at logistics provider McGimpsey Removals, shares an insight into the company, recent investments and why final mile delivery is key.
Back in 1983 with one Volkswagen camper van, McGimpsey’s hit the road by offering localised domestic house removals. The business expanded rapidly to operate a weekly cross-channel removals service, which was followed by entering the overseas exports and imports markets.
Today, the second-generation family business has expanded into new furniture contracts and specialised logistics services, including warehousing, delivery and installation. “We now operate out of two warehouses in Bangor County Down with over 60 members of the team over 20 vehicles in the fleet ranging from 3.5 tonne to articulated vehicles,” said Melissa Gibbons, MD at McGimpsey.
“Our mission is to deliver customer satisfaction by providing the highest quality service with trust and reliability to facilitate a stress-free experience for our clients. We are committed to delivering excellence through continual investment, innovation and improvement whilst remaining environmentally responsible.”
In keeping with the latter statement of sustainability, McGimpsey’s holds the ISO 14001 environmental accreditation and is always looking at ways to reduce its carbon footprint on a companywide perspective. “As part of this process, initiatives we have introduced over the last few years includes changing to LED lights and make use of our solar panels,” Melissa said.
“We also recycle 100% of our wood and dry waste, while when we introduced our telematics software, we were able to reduce our idle time by 52% and improve our fuel efficiency by 12%, so we continually monitor these for further gains.”
Alongside eco-investments, the company has continued to upgrade its fleet and recently purchased a new Mercedes 18t rigid vehicle, as well as a new Maximover low loader Luton van with tail lift. “We continue to upgrade through our fleet replacement programme,” says Melissa. “We have also invested in new kit for our vehicles to adhere to the Direct Vision Standard (DVS) / Progressive Safe System in London and continue to upgrade our telematics and CCTV packages.
“In addition, we re-cladded our HQ warehouse last year and continue to invest in our team through training and personal development.”
McGimpsey’s commitment to moving forward is testament to the company while operating in challenging times. Despite a slower start to the year, impacted by economic variables, the business has accelerated with new contracts. “This year has had a slower start to the year which has a lot do to with economic factors impacting on our industry, but we have seen this change course and we are now in busy summer mode,” Melissa said.
“With that being said, we have had various new specialised logistics contracts commence this year that are now in full swing. The main challenges we face are economic fluctuations impacting on the market and a shortage of HGV drivers. The driver shortage has improved in recent years but there is still a gap in the labour market for HGV drivers.”
Another area Melissa highlighted was the focus on final mile delivery and why it’s important to offer a complete service. “We can see more and more manufacturers and retailers focusing on the final mile delivery and wanting a premium white glove service as opposed to kerbside deliveries. This reflects the service, value and customer experience the manufacturers/retailers have already delivered and they see transport companies being an extension of their service.
“After all, there is no point in delivering a first-class customer journey for this to fail at delivery stage. Reputation, reliability, quality and service should continue throughout the entire process.”
Looking to the future, Melissa remained coy on sharing what’s around the corner, however, she did reveal that McGimpsey’s have some “very exciting plans for this year, which for now our lips are sealed on, but will be announced in the coming months”.
“We are the go-to partner in Ireland,” Melissa said. “For warehousing, final mile, delivery and installation solutions, get in touch today. Contact our team on 02891 456222 or steven@mcgimpseys.com. Give your clients a delivery experience worth repeating.”
