Burry Port firm Celtic Couriers is celebrating success in industry Oscars

By Robert Lloyd

Burry Port firm Celtic Couriers is celebrating success in the prestigious Motor Transport Awards 2013.

The firm, one of the biggest companies in Carmarthenshire’s second biggest town, is part of the APC Overnight courier and delivery network.

APC scooped the Network of the Year award at a glittering awards night hosted by TV celebrity Dara O’Briain.

“It is a major feather in our cap,” said Celtic Couriers co-founder Ivor Skinner, who is also a director of APC Overnight.

“As Celtic Couriers, we are shareholders in APC Overnight. As awards to courier and delivery firms go, this really is the ‘Oscar’ of the industry in the UK.

“It’s a magnificent achievement and a great boost for the Celtic Couriers business and our nationwide arm of APC Overnight.

“To win the award, we had to demonstrate excellent operational efficiency, above-average vehicle utilisation, high customer service levels, value for money and high levels of flexibility and responsiveness.

“All of the above form a core part of how we do business at Celtic Couriers and APC Overnight.

“The award is testament to the quality and hard work of our staff at Celtic Couriers and in the wider national field by APC Overnight.

“We really are a firm that goes the extra mile. Delivering success is what we are all about. The great rugby hero Ray Gravell always used to say ‘West is Best’. Here at Celtic Couriers we firmly believe in that motto and strive, day-in-day out, to provide a consistent, quality, value-for-money courier and delivery service for our many valued customers.”

The Motor Transport Awards judges praised APC Overnight for a strong financial performance and the development of a new £l5m, 138,000ft national sorting centre in Cannock in The Midlands.

Since 1994, APC Overnight has expanded in both size and ambition and now comprises 53 member firms and 115 depots, with 1,400 delivery vehicles and 3,700 full-time staff.

Headed since 2012 by chief executive Syed Ziaullah (owner of one of the network’s founding members, Action Express), APC has seen three years of profit growth capped in 2012 with a 30.4% leap in pre-tax profit £4.4m.

“APC is pulling off the hard trick of making money in the parcels sector, where people typically do not,” one of the judges said.

APC’s annual network turnover now stands at £353m, after consignments handled reached 12.16 million last year compared with 9.72 million in 2010.

Pictured:

From left – Dara O Briain with APC Overnight chief executive Syed Ziaullah, Quentin Abel, MD, and director Ivor Skinner (Celtic Couriers) and Burnt Tree Contract Hire director Mark Howell.