Wincanton plc is a British provider of

logistics Logistics is the part of supply chain management that deals with the efficient forward and reverse flow of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the Consumption (economics), point of consumption according to the ...

with its origins in milk haulage. The company provides transport and logistics services including specialist automated high bay, high capacity warehouses, and

supply chain management In commerce, supply chain management (SCM) deals with a system of procurement (purchasing raw materials/components), operations management, logistics and marketing channels, through which raw materials can be developed into finished produc ...

for businesses. The company was listed on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

until it was acquired by GXO Logistics in April 2024.

History

Wincanton was founded in 1925, as Wincanton Transport & Engineering Ltd, a subsidiary of the West Surrey Central Dairy Company, a company which has since been known as Cow & Gate, Unigate and then

Uniq uniq is a utility command on Unix, Plan 9, Inferno, and Unix-like operating systems which, when fed a text file or standard input, outputs the text with adjacent identical lines collapsed to one, unique line of text. Overview The command is ...

. In the 1970s, Wincanton diversified into new market sectors including

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring un ...

and developed temperature controlled operations for the transportation of food stuffs and refrigerated goods. In the 1990s, Wincanton merged with Unigate Chilled Distribution, and entered the

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholes ...

market, through the acquisition of Glass Glover in February 1993. In March 2001, Wincanton plc demerged from Uniq, and was listed on the

. In November 2008, Wincanton acquired the CEL Group. In November 2015, Wincanton sold its

records management Records management, also known as records and information management, is an organizational function devoted to the information management, management of information in an organization throughout its records life-cycle, life cycle, from the time of ...

business (WRM) to Restore to reduce its average net

indebtedness Debt is an obligation that requires one party, the debtor, to pay money borrowed or otherwise withheld from another party, the creditor. Debt may be owed by a sovereign state or country, local government, company, or an individual. Commer ...

, and allow room for growth. In February 2016, Wincanton partnered with Magnet Kitchens to produce 44 new double-decker articulated trailers which was an investment of £2 million. In March 2016, Wincanton launched EnergyLink, a network based in the United Kingdom to support greater flexibility in delivery services for the

energy sector The energy industry refers to all of the industries involved in the production and sale of energy, including fuel extraction, manufacturing, refining and distribution. Modern society consumes large amounts of fuel, and the energy industry is a cr ...

. In April 2016, Wincanton gained further growth of its operations at the

Port of Southampton The Port of Southampton is a passenger and cargo port in the central part of the south coast of England. The modern era in the history of the Port of Southampton began when the first dock was inaugurated in 1843. After the Port of Felixstowe, ...

after moving to a new base and investing in new equipment, supported by extra

rail Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Railway track or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' (1967 fil ...

capacity. In June 2016, Wincanton renewed its distribution deal with

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is a British supermarket and the second-largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company was the largest UK r ...

for an additional five years. In July 2016, Wincanton renewed a contract with

The Co-operative Group The Co-operative Group Limited, trading as Co-op and formerly known as the Co-operative Wholesale Society, is a British consumer cooperative, consumer co-operative with a group of retail businesses, including grocery retail and wholesale, leg ...

for a further five years, which brings the contract to 25 years. As part of the agreement, around 700 staff of Wincanton and a fleet of more than 500 vehicles will support the Co-op, by making around 130,000 journeys each year to as many as 1,000 stores of the Co-op across the United Kingdom. In October 2019, Wincanton plc expressed an interest in merging with

Eddie Stobart Edward Pears Stobart (18 April 1929 – 25 November 2024) was a British businessman who started an agriculture business in the late 1940s. This became Eddie Stobart Limited in 1970 and expanded to a haulage company during the 1970s with the h ...

. Wincanton, later withdrew their offer, saying that it had "yet to receive full disclosure of the information requested to enable it to complete its due diligence exercise". In January 2024, a

takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are publicly listed, in contrast to the acquisi ...

offer from

CMA CGM The Compagnie maritime d'affrètement - Compagnie générale maritime or CMA CGM is a French shipping and logistics company founded in 1978 by Jacques Saadé. The name is an acronym of two predecessor companies, Compagnie Maritime d'Affrètemen ...

worth £718 million was recommended for acceptance by Wincanton's

board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

. Then, in March 2024, the board of directors decided to back a higher offer worth £762 million from GXO Logistics. Completion of the takeover was approved by the court on 25 April 2024 but has been subject to an investigation by the

Competition and Markets Authority The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is the principal competition regulator in the United Kingdom. It is a non-ministerial government department in the United Kingdom, responsible for promoting competitive markets and tackling unfair beh ...

since 26 April 2024.

Headquarters

The company's origins are in

Wincanton Wincanton ( or ) is a town and electoral ward in Somerset, southwest England. The town lies off the A303 road, a main route between London and South West England, and has some light industry. In the 2021 census the civil parish had a populatio ...

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, although the head office is now based in Methuen Park,

Chippenham Chippenham is a market town in north-west Wiltshire, England. It lies north-east of Bath, Somerset, Bath, west of London and is near the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town was established on a crossing of the River Avon, ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

Operations

Wincanton currently directly employs in the region of 20,000 people across the United Kingdom and Ireland through a network of 160 sites.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wincanton Companies based in Wiltshire Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Logistics companies of the United Kingdom Transport companies established in 1925 Transport operators of the United Kingdom 1925 establishments in England 2024 mergers and acquisitions