A number of Northamptonshire professionals have worked together to facilitate the successful expansion of Goodwill Solutions, a social enterprising company specialising in bespoke logistics and warehousing solutions to retailers and manufacturers.
Commercial property agent Prop-Search, solicitors Friday Legal and building surveyors Ansty & Associates all represented Goodwill Solutions in its acquisition of a 114,335 sq ft warehouse facility at Deer Park Road, on the Moulton Park Industrial Estate in Northampton. The property has been acquired in order to relocate Goodwill’s existing warehouse operation from Brackmills Industrial Estate and to increase the organisation’s capacity.
As well as a logistics provider to retailers and global furniture manufacturers – providing services such as pallet storage, third party logistics and relabeling – Goodwill Solutions is involved in the sourcing and sale of good quality affordable home and office furniture to organisations, charities and individuals. Its client base consists of blue chip companies such as Asda, Sainsbury’s and Amazon.
Goodwill Solutions utilises the revenue stream from its commercial activities to fund social welfare programs. It runs a ‘back to work’ program where it trains ex-offenders and paves the way for their employment both internally at Goodwill Solutions and elsewhere in the logistics sector. Partnering the University of Northampton, the business also provides placement opportunities for students to contribute in key business areas, making them more employable after they leave University.
Commenting on its latest expansion, Mike Britton, founding partner of Goodwill Solutions, said: “When Goodwill was created in 2008 we had the vision to establish a business that actively sought to work for, and contribute towards, the betterment of the community at large.”
“The new facility will enable us to increase our capacity and further create new jobs and volunteering opportunities; and in turn add support to local community projects. It comes off the back of us being named as a leading social enterprise in the East Midlands at the 2013 Royal Bank of Scotland Social Enterprise 100 awards – after seeing a 70 per cent rise in turnover since last year and a valued social impact of £3.48 million.”
Goodwill Solutions is currently working in conjunction with the University of Northampton on ‘The £1 billion University Challenge’ which encourages the UK’s Higher Education sector to spend at least £1 billion of the £7 billion per annum it spends on procuring goods and services from external suppliers, with social enterprises. This enables the company to continue to employ ex-offenders, thus contributing to a reduction in re-offending in the local area.
Richard Baker, a Director of Prop-Search, added: “It was a pleasure to act, alongside other Northamptonshire professionals, to aid the procurement of this new facility for Goodwill Solutions. Their business model is unique and we hope that the new property supports their growth and social enterprise activities in the County for many years to come.”
