DT Christmas Newsletter 2025

LOGISTICS

A warm welcome to Jan de Rijk

Craig Slater, Global Accounts Sales and Development Manager, provides an introduction to Davies Turner Logistics’ new Dutch connection and gateway to EU Logistics.

I n 2024, the challenge began to find a partner to support Davies Turner Logistics’ growth and Logistics service capabilities within the EU. The aim was simple, let us find a like-minded company with the infrastructure, capabilities and

of Dryrobe product from factory floor through to the customer door. In July, our second customer Footasylum (DTC Manchester) began utilising our new services to support the B2B movement of its products to Zalando, JD Sports and most recently, 60 retail stores across Europe. Under the watchful eye of Abbie Whelan (DTC Manchester), who coordinates the FCL/LCL movements, customs clearance, duty recovery, port transfer and delivery into JDR. Not forgetting at times managing four to five full trailer load dispatches per day from JDR into Footasylum’s customer base, as well as monitoring one to twenty carton deliveries per store for the 60 locations we currently service. If that was not enough, there is also the occasional new pick request for a modest 10-12,000 garments Footasylum would like us to pick, palletise and deliver (normally required ASAP) to a new EU customer. Never a dull moment on Abbie’s desk! Latest client now on board Our most recent customer is Mancave (DTL Bristol), which began transferring stock for EU inventory to fulfil online sales through its EU website, which we now distribute across Europe as well as delivering to Amazon. Mancave has high ambitions within the EU, hoping to achieve 100,000 orders per year for its EU client base within as little as three years. Therefore, if you’re ever in the EU on holiday and forget your shampoo, place an order, we will handle it for you. (Don’t worry Alan Williams, they also do beard creams as the shampoo would be a bit unnecessary!) There is a lot of excitement and opportunity for Davies Turner Logistics within the EU. We are currently having discussions with a number of customers that would like to utilise our services, some of which come onboard as early as the first quarter of 2026. So watch this space and, Merry Christmas!

ambition to expand our presence in the market and of course, no intention of setting up shop in the UK and becoming a competitor. Well, after the first trip into Belgium and the Netherlands, constantly losing phone signal when crossing borders, driving into multiple warehouse yards unannounced for a quick snoop (thank you Emily), we found what we were looking for. Somewhere to get dinner, The Fox and Hound.

Using our research and notes from the first trip, the route was tweaked and we found ourselves in Roosendaal, Netherlands. A quiet area but brimming with logistics activity. Major players such as CEVA, GXO, DHL and many more are all present in the Roosendaal Logistics Hub including our now partner JDR. Jan de Rijk is a family business like Davies Turner, but is somewhat younger having been established in 1971, but is still owned and operated by the de Rijk family. It has approximately 80,000 sq m of warehousing capacity supported by a strong truck and trailer fleet and roughly 1200 employees. Working relationship from February 2025 Our working relationship commenced in February 2025 with our first customer Dryrobe. This involved shipping product from the UK via our Smart Border service, and via air, ocean and rail modes from Dryrobe’s global supply base directly into Rotterdam before being transferred to our base of operations in the JDR Roosendaal facility where our on-site dedicated team takes over the physical operations. Through Zoe Baldwin (DTL Bristol) and Bethany Force (DTC Bristol) supported by Charlotte Chamberlain (DTL Bristol) we now coordinate the B2C & B2B supply chain management

Cake made for the start of the contract in NL

Zoe Baldwin, contracts manager; Craig Slatter, Davy Duijndam, Nick Broeren on a visit to DTL (Bristol)

JDR Family sporting Dryrobe garments

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