Fortec Pallet Network joins Investors in Excellence

The Fortec Pallet Distribution Network has joined the highly regarded Investors in Excellence organisation as a major step in its journey towards ultimate service excellence. The Investors in Excellence standard is a nationally recognised holistic standard for achieving and recognising excellence.

The Watford-Gap based Fortec Pallet Distribution Network is probably recognised by both its competitors in the sector and indeed customers as having the best reputation in the industry for consistent service quality. Fortec has expanded substantially in recent years and its closer working partnership with its French sister company Geodis Calberson has led to record volumes and profitability in the first half of 2010.

Neil Hodgson, Managing Director of the Fortec Pallet Distribution Network, who has recently celebrated his first anniversary as MD of the company, commented: "Our quality of service is our lifeblood and although we may not be the biggest pallet network we pride ourselves on arguably having the best reputation for providing a consistent level of quality service to our customers. Few of our competitors would challenge that view, such is the respect Fortec has amongst its peers in the industry.

"We are absolutely delighted to be joining Investors in Excellence. We are not by any means complacent about our quality of service and our ultimate goal is total service excellence in both our delivery and in customer satisfaction. We consistently achieve in excess of 99 per cent on-time delivery for our customers. This level of operational performance has been maintained due to the fact that we now have the strongest network of licensee members in our history. They are all established, progressive and commercially sound businesses in their own right, who promote the Fortec brand with pride."  

Hodgson stressed that he is committed to Fortec becoming actively involved in the Investors in Excellence organisation. "I firmly believe that our participation in this initiative will take us to the next level and set us apart from the competition. It can put us in a different league in terms of our service offer. We are now focussed on achieving the IiE standard and are confident of achieving it."

The decision by Neil Hodgson and his senior Management team to participate in the Investors in Excellence standard, was partly driven by the long friendship between two former colleagues at TNT Express. Hodgson was an executive at TNT in the early part of his career in the parcels industry where he worked for well known industry guru Alan Jones who was Managing Director of TNT in the UK at the time.  

Jones moved on and subsequently worked alongside Ian Nield chief executive of Midlands Excellence when they launched the Investors in Excellence standard which is now being used by organisations throughout the United Kingdom and overseas to achieve continuously improving results. Jones, Founder Chairman of Midlands Excellence, which owns Investors in Excellence Limited, met up recently with Hodgson to congratulate him on his decision to commit Fortec Pallet Distribution Network to achieve the Investors in Excellence standard.  

He said: "I am delighted Fortec Pallet Distribution Network is using the Investors in Excellence standard to further improve its results including the quality of service provided for customers. This is good news for everyone involved with the company. Any business wanting to achieve the Investors in Excellence standard has to demonstrate continuous improvement in every part of the organisation and the opportunities to improve are in the first instance identified by following a rigorous process of self-assessment. All stakeholders including customers, employees and investors benefit from our proven approach."