Unipart

History

Unipart as it operates its business today was formed in 1974 by John Egan. State-controlled British Leyland put him in charge of their Unipart parts and service division, let him make it independent and brand it Unipart. The use of the Unipart brand to market service parts for British Leyland vehicles was similar in concept to Ford's Motorcraft brand. The next year British Leyland was nationalised. Egan left in 1976 to join Massey Ferguson.

Then 29-year-old John Neill replaced Egan and he continued Egan's policy of providing the same logistical services to its parent's competitors as well as to British Leyland. In 1987, shortly after British Leyland had been re-privatised as the Rover Group, Neill led a management buyout of Unipart, in part financed by a wider employee buy-in. Unipart is now 70% owned by its workforce and pension fund, the other 30% is held by sympathetic institutions.

Unipart's traditional promotion of its services was by motorsports sponsorship, from 1978 with the Triumph Dolomite Formula 3 team, and from 1980 in Formula One, first with Ensign and then with McLaren until 1983. Once Unipart were completely independent they returned to Formula One sponsorship, with Tyrrell and later with Jordan Grand Prix.

For the past 30 years, Unipart has been making products and sourcing product under the Unipart brand. In 1999, Unipart purchased the Partco network which consisted of branches largely located on industrial estates providing parts into the automotive aftermarket. Partco was renamed Unipart Automotive.

Over the years, Unipart Group rapidly expanded out of its original core business into wider logistics markets such as rail and the health service.

In 2011 51% of the Unipart Automotive parts business was sold to H2 Equity Partners. The remaining 49% of Unipart Automotive was retained by Unipart Group. A condition of the sale was that Unipart Group exercised no control over the business.

H2 previously purchased a controlling stake in another European automotive aftermarket parts distribution company called Sator Holdings, the market leader in Benelux and Northern France. It was hoped that H2's controlling interest in Sator would eventually boost the number of parts offered by Unipart Automoitive in the UK from 90,000 to 160,000.

Under its new ownership, Unipart Automotive was granted a restricted licence by Unipart Group to use the Unipart brand on a limited range of wholesale outlets and a tightly controlled range of automotive car parts in the UK.

In April 2013, H2 sold Sator Holding to Unipart Automotive's main rival Euro Car parts for £176 million.

In July 2014 Unipart Automotive entered into administration with the loss of more than 1200 jobs. Some branches and 361 staff were sold to Andrew Page and the Parts Alliance. Andrew Page, which has 93 branches and more than £170 million in turnover, is a member of The Parts Alliance, a buying and distribution group.

Unipart Group is now working with Andrew Page and the UK Parts Alliance to ensure that British used car owners are still getting Unipart products. Unipart Car Care Centres, which are based in towns across the UK, will continue to be supported and will continue to deliver the same standard of service to their customers.

In May 2015 Unipart announced its biggest rise in profits for 10 years, said to be due to continued productivity improvements.

Operating divisions

There are three main operating divisions within the Unipart Group, these main operating divisions are Unipart Logistics, Unipart Manufacturing and Unipart Consultancy and within these are various business units.

In 2014 Unipart Group announced three major manufacturing investments in the Midlands. Two new manufacturing facilities were opened in Coventry. Unipart formed a £32m joint venture with Coventry University called The Institute for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering http://www.coventry.ac.uk/ame/. 60 students at Coventry University divide their time between lecture halls and Unipart’s manufacturing site. The Institute for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (AME) hosted the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne and Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills Sajid Javid signed a £1.1 bn deal with local authorities to create a Midlands Engine.

During 2015, Unipart launched a joint venture with Rolls-Royce called MetLase Limited. MetLase uses high precision, laser cutting technology, and patented assembly and joining systems, to enable engineers to produce prototypes rapidly.

The Unipart Way

"The Unipart Way" is a system of lean manufacturing tools and techniques, with a guiding philosophy to reduce waste or activities which do not add value. Based on the companies learning from Honda and study into the Toyota Production System, it is the name the company has given to its methodology. It involves a process of continuous measurement which is designed to lead to a reduction of wasteful activity, thereby ensuring the best deployment of time and resources.

The methodology is not without its critics. Most publicly, the work done at HMRC was censured by PCS general secretary, Mark Serwotka, who stated, "By reducing staff to nothing more than machines on the whim of consultants, the department is undermining the morale of staff who face imminent job cuts and office closures."

HMRC argue that Unipart's work has produced significant benefits for them. An HMRC spokesman said: "Lean is all about offering a better service to our customers and staff. It is a key element in HMRC's plan to provide improved service and meet efficiency targets. Staff are asked to organise their desks when shared with colleagues to avoid clutter and to make sure they have everything set up to do their job effectively. Any suggestion that staff are restricted to a pen and cup on their desk is simply not true. Rather than making work boring and repetitive, staff are being invited to work with their managers to improve the way tasks and systems are developed."

The National Audit Office acknowledged Unipart’s contribution in helping the tax collection agency cut costs by £400m.

Corporate social responsibility

Unipart has strong links with the local community and education, supporting many community initiatives and organisations. Unipart has a traditionally strong affiliation with motorsport. In 2006, the company teamed up with Nigel Mansell and his sons, Greg and Leo, in a sponsorship deal in support of Nigel's sons' careers in Formula BMW.

Currently Unipart also supports an initiative to inspire young people who were struggling at school. They now attend classes within Unipart daily and are supported through work experience. By being treated as trainees rather than pupils their attendance records and academic progress have been transformed. The programme is called Unipart Inspires, and it brings together work experience with training in job hunting skills such as interview practice, CV writing and using social media to search for jobs. Unipart has also supported an initiative to give homeless people supported and paid employment.

Unipart supports Business in the Community's Per Cent Club principles aiming to distribute one per cent of its pre-tax gross profits in goods or in kind each year.

In 2015 Unipart was one of a handful of companies to receive a five star rating in the Business in the Community 2015 Corporate Responsibility (CR) Index - the UK’s leading benchmark of responsible business. The following year, Unipart Group scored 100% in the 2016 Corporate Responsibility Index.