Variation - an exciting new song, to an old tune
Variation is a logistics 'matchmaking' business designed to bring together warehouse and office owners with 'unutilised' space they can't or don't usually make use of, with retailers and suppliers who need storage or working areas fast, flexibly, or even temporarily– and just can't find it.
Variation, the brainchild of Bill Howie and Graham Williams (who together have nearly 50 years experience in logistics and supply chain management), brings together the space hungry and the space rich through an innovative model based on marketing the space, designing the solution and managing the relationships to keep things simple.
Variation's key strength lies in identifying spare resources, particularly space, within the Logistics Providers which might match their customers' needs – at very competitive rates. They act as a single 'tenant' to the Logistics Providers with access to all those pockets of space the agents don't have and, most importantly, as logistics rather than property experts, they know how to make the deal work both for the seller and the buyer.
The Variation service also encompasses other logistics and supply chain functions. Variation will arrange the support services required to support the warehousing and can arrange wider services such as freight forwarding, national transport, international consolidation, etc, through its network of contacts and alliances.
click here to find out more about the Variation Team
UKWA (United Kingdom Warehousing Association)
Warehousing is at the heart of a cost-effective supply chain and the United Kingdom Warehousing Association (UKWA) has been at the forefront of Britain's warehousing industry for over 60 years. Established in 1944, the Association represents nearly 700 members, who, between them, control nearly 100 million square feet of warehouse and distribution centre space from some 2000 locations across the UK.
Originally established as a trade body for the third party warehousing and logistics sector, the Association now embraces all companies that provide warehousing or other logistics support services in the supply chain. In other words, companies that undertake warehousing and logistics tasks but for whom such operations do not represent their core business can now apply for membership of UKWA.
Of course, the overwhelming majority of UKWA's members remain third party warehousing and logistics services companies, or 3PLs as they are perhaps better known, but the move to widen the Association's membership eligibility means that UKWA is now truly representative of the wider supply chain community.