The team at Newton Aycliffe-based Stiller Warehousing and Distribution are celebrating after being presented with a prestigious national award.
The award was one of ten presented at a glittering ceremony at the annual awards ceremony organised by leading palletised freight distributor Palletline, held at the International Conference Centre in Edinburgh at which guests were entertained by comedians Conor Burns and Fred MacAuley.
The company fended off stiff competition from transport companies across the UK to win the award for Commercial Brilliance, sponsored by Allports.
Stiller was one of the first companies to join the 78-strong member-owned Palletline network more than thirty years ago.
Over the past couple of years an added focus on sales by the Stiller team has resulted in the company building relationships with existing customers and winning more business from new customers.
Since then, the company has retained all its business despite rate reviews to mitigate increases in the cost of living, National Insurance contributions and wage increases.
In that time the volumes inputted into the pallet network have grown by 16%.
Thomas Prentice is the Business Development Manager at Stiller. He said: “We are all absolutely elated. This award says it all. We have been an active player with Palletline for so long – we are in the top three largest depots in the network, in terms of distribution.
“The whole team has put in a lot of work on our service to allow us to continue to build sales, and this has been recognised in this award from Palletline, so everyone is over the moon.”
Established in 1954, Stiller Warehousing and Distribution is a third-generation family business employing more than 200 staff and operating 48 tractor units with twice as many trailers.
As well as its distribution site on Aycliffe Business Park – the largest business park in the north of England – Stiller operates a number of warehouses totalling 500,000 square feet across the north.
Thomas added: “Everyone is delighted with the award. We are very service driven as opposed to growth driven, but we’ve still grown exponentially over the past ten years, doubling turnover and staff in that time.”
More recently the company has also added a contract packaging division to its portfolio of services.
Photo: Shining brightly – Stiller Warehousing and Distribution wins the Commercial Brilliance Award from Palletline.