LSA bring you an exclusive four-halls tour of IMHX at the NEC

IMHX Logistics ‘A list’ trade show – Biggest-ever, as LSA meet Helix the sortation robot,

LSA Chairman Carl Lomas brings you keynotes, photo tour, or still time to visit, with the first-day summaries for IMHX at the NEC.

LSA walked the orange carpets to meet Helix the robot; mascot of IMHX and a herd of Investec Zebra for the largest-ever, four-hall IMHX trade show at the NEC.

Wall-to-wall sortation technology - from wrapping to routing in every size of warehouse.

The giant show runs to and includes Friday, it's free to attend, but beware of the sixteen pound parking fee or let the train take the strain. can't make it?, take the photo gallery tour of the whole show below!

LSA at IMHX to bring you the first-day keynote summaries

Tuesday Sept 24, lashings of Birmingham morning rain for a sixteen pound NEC car park arrival, reaching the orange carpets that were particularly thin for the sector's exploding numbers; but let's not forget this is a four-day show and space is king.

Robots on the rise; AI and technology on many stands. 450 exhibitors in almost 400,000 sq feet is what gave the space to walk and talk. A-frame yellow barriers to race cars at Briggs for Yale fork trucks. A training village, a fork-truck driver area, IMHX is everything you need for the warehouse and all under one huge roof in a giant L shape of NEC halls.

UKWA pavilion hosted tea and coffee for LSA as we watched Peter Ward do his warehouse TV interviews to showcase the UK Warehousing platforms.

Women in Logistics conference today Wednesday, Clipper Logistics Jennifer Swain talking inclusion. More seminars in the Skills Zone with workshops for companies seeking to strengthen their workforce.

Focused on Thomas Cook, there was much talk of workforce expectation with ten weeks to Black Friday peak. LSA have access to the Institute of Couriers, Thomas Cook job line connecting candidates to jobs in final mile via the DWP Job Centre Plus connections of Alex Farkas.

LSA were sat in the comfy black chairs for the IMHX top spot of the seminars for event sponsor Investec. Not just an orange carpet trade show at the NEC, IMHX seminars stacked and racked for yesterday's Centre Stage opening day keynote, a Brexit masterclass by Investec ‘the reality of Brexit, for logistics is a govt 45 short of a majority.’

Philip Shaw, Investec, ‘Today Govt is 45 short of a majority.’

‘I think an election is pretty likely in the next few months.’

LSA were at centre stage of IMHX logistics trade show for the opening masterclass, it was Brexit, Brexit for logistics from banking expert, Investec Philip Shaw.

‘Customs checks and regulatory checks, the back stop, Northern Ireland and the back stop. The problems: UK could be trapped in the back stop indefinitely, the second point, Northern Ireland could be treated differently to the UK, the third issue is the political declaration.’ ‘We can’t rule out something changing, an election and or a referendum, the majority has gone with the last by-election. Today the govt is 45 short of a majority to vote. I think an election is pretty likely in the next few months. The DUP has ten MPs and does not want a no-deal Brexit. 10 MPs still will not deliver a majority.’ ‘An election after UK leaves EU will help Tories by neutralising the Brexit party.’

Goods across border: ‘Temporary tariff scheme, imposed on 87% of imports, duration 12 months, 13 free trade agreements being signed so far. World economic activity has slowed, there has been no acceleration since Q1 this year. The economic perspective, Trump started a tariff war last year. We think progress will be slow in the next two years. 45 central banks around the World have cut rates, we do not think Bank of England will cut rates.

Clare Bottle, warehousing director Coca Cola, talks sustainable logistics in food.

‘This is Forward’ The logistics of being more sustainable.’

We measure ourselves on unit cases, 2.5 billion, 5 factories across Great Britain, the biggest in Wakefield, two in London. Our sustainability action plan is called ‘This is Forward.’ Stock loss is a waste of money, controlling food waste is important. We signed up to the Courtauld Commitment, launched in 2005 with other signatories including the national supermarkets.’ ‘For us nothing goes to landfill, good stock handling helps reduce food waste, rotation is key, selling the oldest stock is not easy across a network, circulating stock including returns reduces the risk of waste. Units such as underweight or light fills are rotated through our company shop group that needs a membership card to purchase. We also work with FareShare linked to charities, hostels and food banks. Five million pigs in the UK, it is no longer legal to feed catering waste.’

Prof John Manners-Bell, chaired IMHX Centre Stage workshop,

‘Start-ups and distribution in logistics. ‘

Transport Intelligence, A round table, Ken Lyons, Jonah Mcintrie & Mark Parsons. ‘How is a start-up viewed by a corporate? The difficulty is communicating value between the two to complete the final mile delivery.’ ‘It takes a long time to be an overnight success.’ The workshop focused on recognition of start-ups likely to stay in the market and how logistics operators could best judge the success and level of engagement to make delivery happen across the exploding e-retail client chains.