CASE STUDY – Maxim Logistics

From Insolvency To Leading Food Ingredient Industry Provider Within Months.

OVERVIEW

Maxim Logistics, a $15M third-party logistics provider, was in operational and financial meltdown. The warehouse business alone ($5M annual revenue) was losing over $125K per month. Client mix was dysfunctional. Execution was collapsing. A new large customer (c 4500 pallet storage) had been gained at very short notice and overwhelmed the operation and leadership.

Trigger for Intervention: With high operating losses, a site overcapacity, control was lost, and leadership drift had crippled throughput.

THE CHALLENGE

The operation was overwhelmed — capacity, control, and client fit had all spiralled into red ink.

Warehouse Gridlock. 12,000+ pallet demand in a 150k ft² footprint; 20+ trailers queued daily waiting to tip.
Client Chaos. 33 customers with vastly different service requirements from quad bikes and glass bottles to foodstuffs and gardening hardware, created constant operational disruption.
Margin Collapse. Direct wages hit 55% of revenue; low pick rates and unbilled services bled cash.
System Dysfunction. WMS had not been developed or configured for zone picking, task interleaving, or real-time scheduling.
Leadership Drift. Continental shifts masked service failures and embedded poor client behaviour.

THE APPROACH

Gary Newbury was appointed as Interim COO to lead the recovery. A full-spectrum plan was mobilised. It was rapid, forceful, and unflinching. Gary’s initial focus was stabilisation. He rapidly assessed the warehouse footprint, isolated non-viable clients, and established operating standards to buy back capacity, control and margin.

Customer Exit Strategy. Analysed all 33 clients for volumes, destinations and profitability; exited 80% with no commercial fallout.
Warehouse Redesign. Removed irregular racking, installed triple cycling, and optimised directed P&D station usage.
WMS Upgrades. Introduced interleaving, zone picking, and structured inbound receiving.
Operational Control. Enforced Day 1/Day 3 service logic and rebuilt inbound scheduling, receiving, putaway, selection and marshalling/loading processes.
Leadership Reset. As Interim COO, reset commercials and re-established floor discipline whilst clarifying leadership team and Board member future responsibilities.

THE SOLUTION

Execution focus enabled transformation to accelerate.

Client Rationalisation. Cut customer count from 33 to 7; focused solely on ambient food ingredients picked and shipped in bulk.
Pricing Reset. Lifted case-pick rates from $0.20 to $1.00 during the exit phase; bulk rates moved from $2.00 to $5.00.
Productivity Uplift. Doubled throughput from 400 to 800 pallets/shift through task-interleaving, zoning, and a disciplined receiving model, including inbound scheduling.
Finance Rebuild. Replaced the legacy finance team after uncovering fraud and systemic control failures.
Certification Win. Achieved EFSIS “Advanced” status. One of only 10 UK warehouses to do so.

Cutting the clients was easy. Making the surviving seven profitable? That’s where the real work began.

THE OUTCOMES

Within six months, the transformation delivered measurable and sustained performance gains.

Throughput Doubled. Delivered more with fewer VNA and counterbalance fork trucks.
Labour Efficiency. Wage ratio cut from 55% to 21%, representing a saving of $2M/year.
Profit Swing. From -$125K/month to +$125K/month; a $3.0M annual shift, established within six months.
Strategic Growth. Opened a second warehouse and migrated Benteler (auto parts) JIT contract; added major retail contract with Courts (furniture) with asymmetrical design.
Market Share. Established an operation now delivering 44% of all UK bakery ingredient volume.

WHY IT MATTERS

This was more than a turnaround — it redefined a niche.

Speed. Recovery locked within 90 days with sustained profitability.
End-to-End Execution. Every commercial and operational lever was pulled.
Positioned to Scale. Now the national leader in food ingredient logistics, with real capacity for growth.

CLIENT TESTIMONIAL

“Gary’s leadership in transforming our operations was invaluable. The turnaround exceeded our expectations, not only improving profitability but also positioning us as a key player in the food logistics sector. His ability to act quickly and decisively saved our business.”
— Andy Lawrence, CEO, Maxim Logistics