In an article for Platinum Business magazine, Tony Bunn, MD of DNA talks about how he began in the sector and how he has steadily grown the business and group of companies over the past 13 years to its current size with over 50 people on the payroll. In the article he talks about why he took the decision to go it alone and some of the challenges he has faced along the way.
The article can be seen in this Issu version of the Platinum Business magazine
Tony Bunn had carved out a successful career selling air cargo space and charter flights, but in 2006 he decided to take the plunge and set up DNA, his own courier company. Now DNA is a
well-established logistics business employing 54 people. He explains to Ian Trevett why he decided to go it alone.
How did you start in the logistics / delivery business?
I first started working in Gatwick in 1988 with an air cargo consolidator AMI Shipping & Forwarding, based above the old British Airways aircraft hangars on the Southern Perimeter Road. I then moved into the Cargo General Sales Agency (GSSA) arena and worked for some of the leading and pioneering companies of their day from the early 1990s to 2004 selling airline cargo space and air charter flights. I was also responsible for creating new and diverse traffic lanes and joining up trade and services globally.
I switched direction in 2005 to contracting for a cargo handling and airline trucking company which was a very different side of the industry. At the end of my term in late 2005 I found myself looking for the next widget to invent which clearly wasn’t going to happen. I decided that it was either find a job or prove the self-sufficiency which I seriously craved – so I sold my motorbike and bought a van, and announced to my wife that I was going to be a courier!
With a six year old and a one year old, my wife probably thought I was having a breakdown but it enabled me to understand that I didn’t need a Eureka moment, just a desire to provide quality services to selected clients who valued service and cost effective solutions. It naturally helped having contacts that I had gained over the years and the integrity that I had built up
within my career and before long we were brokering vans and articulated lorries all over the UK and Europe, and this continued largely in the air cargo sector until 2008.
A former colleague asked me to join Delta Airlines as a Cargo Operations Manager Europe, Middle East & Africa and after negotiating a favourable arrangement that enabled me to continue running my own business with my wife around this new position it became a very busy time. To say thatwe regularly burned the midnight oil would be an understatement, but it enabled us to continue to reinvest in our own business rather than having to use its profits to keep us personally afloat. This continued for three years with me returning to the business full time in 2011.
The rest of the article can be seen in issue 60 of the Platinum Business magazine where this article originally appeared.
