Handleman

In September 2006, US music distribution company Handleman acquired a new facility in Bolton. The £17m investment by Handleman UK in a new 275,000 sq. ft operations centre is one of the largest single investments into Bolton in 10 years.

Handleman UK is the British arm of Michigan-based Handleman Company. It is a supplier and merchandiser of home entertainment products, including CDs, DVDs, games, books and greeting cards. Handleman already employs more than 2,000 people worldwide and manages 4,000 stores on three continents, representing 11% of all music sold in the US and 9% in the UK. Its annual sales are around $1.2 billion.

The company has an existing workforce of over 300 people at a facility in Warrington, Cheshire. The Bolton investment, which could have gone anywhere in the UK, will create a further 400 jobs in the Northwest, with another 1,500 field staff operating across the country.

The interest in England’s Northwest began when representatives from the North of England Inward Investment Agency (NEIIA), which promotes the North of England to potential investors in the United States and Canada, contacted the Handleman headquarters in Michigan to explore future investment plans.

In March 2006, discussions entered a new phase when Handleman won a major new contract to supply one of the UK’s largest supermarkets. To fulfil the contract, Handleman needed to establish a new operations centre.

“This new business venture required substantial investment and demanded a dedicated facility at its core; a fully operational centre that could accommodate not only physical fulfilment, but also comprehensive administrative support,” explains Glyn Angel, Managing Director of Handleman UK.

The NEIIA alerted the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) to Handleman’s requirements. The NWDA picked up where the NEIIA left off and began discussing potential locations with Handleman’s UK management.

The investment could conceivably have gone anywhere in the UK. The main drivers were transport infrastructure, availability of premises and labour force. But given the tight schedule – the lead time from contract award to start date was just 13 months – the choice was soon whittled down to four options, three sites in the Northwest and one in the Midlands.

Of the four initial sites, Bolton quickly emerged as the best fit. Its ‘Big Sam’ development on Wingates Industrial Park, next to the highly-successful Middlebrook retail and leisure development, was brand new and offered premises that could be fitted out to the company’s precise specification. They were also available immediately, giving the company ample time to set up operations in time to start delivering the contract in spring 2007.

The location of the premises, strategically sited adjacent to the M61 and with fast, easy access to the national motorway network, was a huge attraction for Handleman, which transports tens of thousands of products every day to all corners of the UK.

“Location was one of the most important factors for us: with the infrastructure and the ability to get our products into the transport network quickly. Rapid access to the transport network gains us valuable operational time,” says Angel.

A further key benefit was the availability of a comprehensive skills and labour pool. Angel explains that as Handleman was investing in a full operational centre, its largest in the UK, it needed to recruit everything from semi-skilled workers through to management levels.

The company, recently voted one of Michigan’s ‘Cool Places to Work’ for the fourth year in a row, places great importance on staff recruitment and retention. It is renowned for its employee-friendly policies, offering staff a variety of training programmes, including a one-year executive management training programme.

Recruitment support, including labour market research, therefore formed a key element of the overall support package put together by Bolton Council and the NWDA, helping Handleman to get its new facility up and running as smoothly as possible. In addition, the Council provided a Business Expansion Grant to aid with set up costs and established a single point of contact to lead discussions and respond swiftly to any queries.

With the premises secured and the fit-out process underway, Handleman began the first phase of recruitment in October 2006.

Working closely with Job Centre Plus and the Learning and Skills Council, Bolton Council arranged and funded a range of employer events across the borough, such as jobs fairs and recruitment shops, and provided a pre-screening service for all applicants.

Angel was delighted with the results: “the hard work and support of the Council, the NWDA and the other bodies was borne out by the excellent response we had to our recruitment drive. We had examples of 100% turn-out at recruitment days, which is unheard of. I would personally like to thank the NWDA and Bolton Council for their very good work in presenting all the advantages Bolton has to offer,” he says.

By early 2007, most positions were filled and the new operations were all set to go fully ‘live’ later in the spring.

Says Angel, “I am absolutely delighted to be establishing our presence in Bolton. It is a significant and positive step in our strategy for growth in the UK.”