Logistics firm DNA, provide delivery and storage services to businesses across the UK and Europe. Founded in 2006 with a single van, what began as a side-line soon grew into a dynamic business.
Today, DNA has 50 employees, operates from three locations, with a fleet of over 50 vehicles and a warehouse exceeding 13,000 sq. ft. Each week, the dedicated team carry out over 2,000 deliveries or collections – with the same day service proving particularly popular.
A broad range of organisations make up their customer base, from a government department to manufacturing, building and construction, fashion, banking and events companies. In this issue, founder Tony Bunn, reveals his approach to business and how best to lead a team.
“The sheer graft involved in setting up a business is immense, but right from the start, my wife and I didn’t waver from the commitments we’d made to our customers. Never taking a customer for granted and treating all of our clients equally. Whether customers use our services once a year or many times a day, our dedication to providing an excellent service remains the same.”
“Delivering cost-effective logistics solutions for our clients is our aim. We’re not here to make a quick profit, we’re in the industry for the long haul, so we build long term relationships with our clients.”
“Our first customer remains a client today.”
“Integral to customer service is good communication, even if things are not going according to plan, in fact especially when that’s the case, stay in touch and be open with your customers, as this builds trust. Be true to yourself and true to your customers.
“When it comes to managing people, communication is crucial too, listen on all levels and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Understand that as people we are not all the same. Reward people’s efforts, understand their struggles and let them know their opinion counts.
“Finding the right people to recruit can be a struggle, but once we do, we invest in people. We recognised a long time ago that the better we train our team, the better the business runs. That’s why we created a training centre within our warehouse at Crawley and why we’ve recently taken over Lancing Driver Training, so we can develop this further.
“Bridging the skills gap has been a challenge at times, but investing in our employees has been the best way to address this, whilst they, in turn, appreciate our investment in them.
“As a relatively small company, some of our staff are qualified for more than one role, giving us greater flexibility at busy times, with some of our office staff trained as forklift truck drivers, for example. This flexibility means we utilise our workforce better, improving our productivity and efficiency as a business.
“Typically, we train employees in more than the vocational qualifications they require, giving them additional business training too. We empower our team to make decisions, which enhances customer service and tends to mean emerging problems are nipped in the bud.
“Sometimes when you’ve started a business, it can be difficult to delegate and to let go of aspects of running the business, but we’ve just taken on a general manager to run the business day-to-day and it’s had a very positive effect, providing our team with additional support.
“Over the last five years, the business has grown enormously as we’ve developed our services, beginning with deliveries, then offering storage facilities and joining the pallet network Palletforce. Moving forward, we’re looking at adding another operations site to our existing locations and all the time we continue to focus on quality of service
too.”
This article originally appeared in the October / November 2019 issue of Business Edge magazine produced by the Sussex Chamber of Commerce. The full article can be seen on their website.
