1st European celebrates fifth birthday with continued growth

Lancashire-based Freight Forwarders First European is celebrating its fifth birthday of trading on the cusp of reaching its first £1m turnover.

Director Jenna Tattersall opened the road cargo haulage business in September 2009. It was clear she was destined for success, immediately winning the regional ‘Highly Commended New Start Business of the Year Award’.

Since then, Jenna has led the company to year on year growth and more recently added several new services to their growing portfolio.

Business mentor supports growth ambitionJenna explained: “To have grown as a business through the global economic recession is particularly pleasing. Last year I was reading in the sector press about the benefits of having a Business Mentor and contacted our local providers Orvia who deliver the Growth Mentoring programme, part of Boost Business Lancashire.

"They matched me with Richard Singleton of whY-us? and having Richard as my Mentor has worked really well for me. We recognised the need to innovate our processes and it gave me the confidence to successfully develop new products and services, which naturally benefits both us and our customers.

“This year alone we’ve seen growth in our Groupage services, integrated a new Waste Management service, invested in a comprehensive and bespoke CRM (Customer Relationship Management system), developed a Cargo Insurance service and will be launching our new website in October.

“We are now on the cusp of breaking the £1mn turnover barrier and have more new ideas in the pipeline for 2015”.

Ann Holcroft, operations manager at Orvia said ‘It is great to see 1st European is moving forward with their expansion plans and that they were able to benefit from the Growth Mentoring programme.”

Teamwork key to successJenna was also keen to point out the important role of her team. “I’m really proud of our staff. We have a great team spirit that has enabled us to integrate the new services and grow the business year on year. Our customers tell us they work with us because of our reliability and friendly customer service and that is what’s most important to us at First European and down to our team.About First EuropeanFirst European offices are based in Burnley Lancashire and at their distribution centre in Feltham Middlesex. They operate road cargo services to over 62 areas across Europe, including key freight routes through France, Germany, Italy, and Hungary and into Scandinavia.