Over 350 supply chain professionals packed the historic venue of The Swan at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London for The Logistics Awards 2018, where companies and individuals from across the logistics sector were rewarded for their outstanding performance and professionalism.

The evening was dominated by online supermarket, Ocado, who picked up no less than three awards – including the Overall Winner prize. Ocado also collected the Warehouse Efficiency and Technology Innovation (Large) trophies.

This year a special Winner of Winners Award – for which The Logistics Awards’ previous Overall Winners were shortlisted – was introduced. It was presented to Clipper for the work the company has undertaken with John Lewis & Partners in developing a sortation and delivery service for click-and-collect orders.

Ruth Waring – founder of the Women in Logistics professional networking group – received the Logistics 100 award for her outstanding contribution to addressing gender imbalance issues in the supply chain sector. 

In all, there were 17 awards categories and the winners of each were invited on to the stage to be presented with their trophy by the event host – comedian, Holly Walsh.

The category winners were:

•  Corporate Social Responsibility: Forth Ports

•  Future Skills: Vantec Europe

•  Innovation: Heineken UK

•  New Facility (over 150,000sq ft): Sainsbury’s Supermarkets

•  Operations (Large):  John Lewis & Partners

•  Safety:  O’Donovan Waste Disposal

•  Technology Innovation (SME):  WED2B

•  Environment / Sustainability: Mitie with CitySprint

•  Growth: Pallet-Track

•  Logistics 100: Ruth Waring

•  New Facility (under 150,000sq ft): Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery

•  Operations (SME): Miniclipper Logistics

•  Technology Innovation (Large): Ocado

•  Warehouse Efficiency: Ocado

•  Winner of Winners: Clipper Logistics with John Lewis & Partners

•  Editor’s Choice – presented by Kirsty Adams, editor of SHD magazine: Silentnight

•  Overall: Ocado

Chris Brett, Ocado Technology’s Head of Ocado Smart Platform – CFC Architecture, commented: “The success Ocado has enjoyed this evening is vindication of the investment we have made in innovation over the past seven years and a positive endorsement of the direction we are going in terms of automation and optimisation.”

John Munnelly, Head of Operations at John Lewis & Partners’ Magna Park site, said: “We’re incredibly delighted. We have about 600 people at John Lewis Magna Park, so they can be very proud of what they have achieved tonight. It’s been nearly 10 years since we opened our Magna Park facility, and we have built it from what was initially quite a small base to the enormous facility that it is today. It is good to come out on top against some strong competition, so we’re over the moon.”

Rob Fisher, director of The Logistics Awards, stated: “I congratulate all of our winners for their achievements. This year, the standards were higher than ever and, as we worked through the many nominations we received, it was clear that companies operating in the supply chain space demonstrate exceptional standards of professionalism and a commitment to excellence that is unsurpassed.”

Rob Fisher expressed his gratitude to all the evening’s various category sponsors, including Voiteq, Syft, Toyota Material Handling, Mentor, Continental Tyres, Board and Calor.

The Logistics Awards 2018 took place on September 20th, 2018. Next year the event will be held during the International Materials Handling Exhibition (IMHX 2019).