A renewed partnership for secure logistics

In November 2022, Mike Astell (FCDO Services CEO) and Melanie Johnson (Interim Director of Global Logistics Operations) met with colleagues from Hellmann Worldwide Logistics at the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in King Charles Street, London, to celebrate their renewed four-year contract.

Hellmann supply FCDO Services with a global, multi-model haulage service via air, sea, road and rail. They are our partner of choice for all our transport needs.

We are delighted to further build on our strong relationship with Hellmann who offer agile, responsive, innovative solutions to our logistics needs.”
Mike Astell, Chief Executive Officer for FCDO Services

During their visit, Jens Tarnowski (European Managing Director), Andy Connor (Chief Commercial Officer) who has since retired, and Markus Fellmann (Managing Director for the UK) gave an official interview about what the renewed contract means to Hellmann.

We’re extremely proud of the entire team and happy that we have had your confidence for our service in the past and again, moving forward. It has been a supportive relationship between both teams, and we’re excited to look for new projects to conquer together.”
Markus Fellmann, Managing Director for the UK Hellmann Worldwide Logistics

After meeting with our senior leaders, the Hellmann directors were given an official tour of the historical FCDO headquarters, home to part of our Logistics operation.

This contract is critical to FCDO Services because it enables us to put our customers at the heart of everything we do.

By sharing knowledge and best practice we’re able to efficiently run our critical logistics operations on which our FCDO and wider government colleagues heavily rely on us for.

We have a new governance in place too that allows for active, transparent engagement regarding annual costs and service delivery.

A history of collaboration

We began working with Hellmann in 2014, and our partnership has continued to evolve to cope with the ever-changing needs of our business.

In recent years, Hellmann has given FCDO Services increased capabilities to get things to remote, far off locations. Their support was essential during our central role in distributing COVID-19 vaccine to FCDO posts globally.

We delivered the vaccine to 22,000 overseas government staff, while following strict COVID-19 safety measures. Teams from FCDO Services and Hellmann worked hard around the clock, and across time zones for three months to deliver the temperature-controlled vaccines.

Government departments frequently ask FCDO Services to send packages all over the world at short notice.

During the height of the pandemic, a critical request came in to send lifesaving ventilators and oxygen supplies to hospitals in India. FCDO Services asked Hellmann to help us.

With their global transportation network, Hellmann had, within hours, sourced one of the biggest planes in the world – an Antonov An-124.

In under 72 hours our global teams were delivering ventilators to save the lives of some of India’s most vulnerable citizens.

Working towards a more sustainable future

Hellmann Worldwide Logistics and FCDO Services are aligned on many of our core values, especially on environment and sustainability.

Sustainability is an increasingly important part of our service offering. It will feature even more significantly in Hellmann’s 2023-27 corporate strategy and agenda, launched in February 2023. There will be focus not only on environmental sustainability, but also digital, economic and social sustainability.”
Jens Tarnowski, CEO of Western Europe at Hellmann Worldwide Logistics

At FCDO Services, we are passionate about working collaboratively with our suppliers and partners to improve sustainability across our business.

The scale of our Logistics operation is one of the biggest sustainability challenges we face. This is especially the case with the growth in demand for our services and the unpredictability of geo-political, climate and health circumstances.

Reducing our environmental impact, and balancing sustainability and efficiency is an ongoing commitment from us.

We have established a joint Sustainability Working Group with Hellmann Worldwide Logistics. Specialist sustainability staff from both organisations are working together to develop management information to baseline the logistics footprint and measure reduction through delivering carbon reduction projects during the lifetime of the contract.

FCDO Services are once again delighted to be working with Hellmann Worldwide Logistics. They have been an integral part in our global logistics service for the last nine years.

We would like to thank them for their unprecedented commitment to customer service over that time. As we come up to the first year of the new contract we look back at Hellmann’s visit last year to commemorate this great partnership. We look forward to working with them for the next three years, focusing on customer service and sustainability.

View our short video explaining the importance of this partnership to FCDO Services, as part of the renewed contract signing ceremony.