As we hit our 35th year in business, we wanted to share our story from over the years and how we grew from a small startup to a large third-party logistics provider. But to do that we are going to have to cast our minds back to 1990…
The 90’s was a time of globalisation of supply chains. Emerging economies, like China and India, looked to apply themselves to businesses as a third-party, where many UK and American businesses saw the appeal of cheaper labour at the time. As a UK-based company, this provided an opportunity to stick to a niche of being a UK supplier whilst established logistics providers moved their operations abroad. And so, we did.
We opened our first warehouse in Surrey, starting out as a small stock holding and distribution company. At the time, we had one main objective – to provide the best third-party logistics services to our clients. We began to welcome UK-based companies that had entered the early stages of growth and needed us to aid them with their logistics. We offered stock holding, inventory management and distribution – the fundamentals of a 3PL service.
We were still small at the time, however through very focused customer service, fast speed of response, and reliability, we held onto our clients and began attracting more. There is risk for any business in the early days, so surviving as a business through these initial stages showed us that we had a huge opportunity on our hands, and with hard work and dedication, we could do well in the industry. And so, we kept going.
With the boom of Web 2.0 in 2005, a whole new potential for the way businesses operate was in the pipeline. Not only could we see e-commerce and marketing on the horizon, but the way we managed data and stock holdings was becoming more streamlined. All our management functions (such as inventory management, order processing and transportation operations), were integrated onto technology platforms.
A new technology known as the ‘cloud-based inventory system’, meant we became more capable of adapting to our client and customer needs, with a 24/7 accessible system of orders and stock holding.
We expanded both the warehouse size and the services we offered to meet the changing demands. We introduced online marketing expertise, development of e-commerce websites, and direct mailings. We even decided to rebrand and changed our company logo.
By the end of the 2000s, we had become a lot more established, streamlined and advanced. We were still proud to offer speed of response, reliability and dedication, but the services began to change, and we knew they would continue to do so as the years went by.
Our clients soon became largely made up of online retailers who use our logistics services for stock management in line with online orders. This saw an e-commerce boom and we began to work with Shopify and WooCommerce to offer our clients a fast and easy platform to sell their products.
We didn’t stop there with our logistic services, they still remained our key focus, but we knew that offering a full package of services would help to harness business expansion.
Furthermore, this was a time where a lot of businesses were coming under fire for waste and emissions. We made the decision to implement some environmentally friendly measures such as biodegradable packing peanuts and rebrand to show our commitment to being an eco-friendly business.
We’ve covered all the changes that happened for QMS throughout the years, so that leaves one question, where are we today?
We feel extremely lucky to stand in the same Surrey warehouse as we started – we’ve had to expand as time has gone on, but we are proud to have grown QMS into a hugely successful business.
We wouldn’t have been able to have this incredible journey without our dedicated warehouse team, some of which have stood by our side for over two decades! We’ve stuck to and held the same business objectives for 35 years and this shared value has ultimately led to our success.
As we celebrate our 35th birthday, we want to share our appreciation and gratitude to all our clients, partners and team members who have been a part of this journey. We can’t wait for the next chapter, and to see what the next 35 years will bring for QMS.
As a small token of our thanks, we have launched a competition that is open to all existing clients and those who have supported us on social media and our website throughout the years. More information can be found on our celebration page – make sure you enter before the 27th of September to be in with a chance of winning!
We’ve also decided as a team to donate to the mental health charity MIND UK and giveback to an organisation that is important to so many of us at QMS.
Thank you for being a part of our journey, we look forward to seeing what the future holds for Quantum Marketing Solutions!
Contact us today if you want to be a part of the next chapter…
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