Can you believe it? 2024 is almost over! It’s been a fantastic year for HBC, and we couldn’t have done it without our amazing team. Let’s take a moment to look back on some of our biggest accomplishments before we dive into 2025.
January: Achieving FORS Gold! 
We kicked the year off with a bang as several HBC drivers qualified for FORS Gold deliveries. This fantastic qualification recognises our commitment to safety and sustainability, showing our skillset in monitoring fuel usage and environmental impact, and ensuring that we’re always operating responsibly. As a logistics company that is constantly aware of our safety practices and carbon footprint, we take enormous pride in this accreditation.
March: Completing our first Carbon Offsetting Project with Henlow Academy!
As an Official Carbon Neutral business, this year we expanded our commitment further by pledging to fund several sustainability initiatives in the local area. In March, we completed our first offsetting project with Henlow Academy, an excellent school and founders of the Poppy Hill Multi Academy Trust.
We got in touch with Karen who told us about their desire for a beehive sanctuary on their premises, and we were more than happy to contribute. We donated £2000 to fund their project as well as collected and delivered the colonies from Oxfordshire, free of charge. These beehives are used to not only educate students on the importance of bees through interaction, but also to provide honey for cooking classes and the cafeteria. They were selling pots at their recent Christmas Fayre!
May: HBC were Headline Sponsors at Cheltenham Racecourse 
Thanks to our Director and keen horse-racing advocate Dave Northfield, his ambition earned us the Headline Sponsor for the annual Midlands Air Ambulance Charity event. It was a fantastic day that raised funds for one of the busiest and vital air ambulance services in the UK. We spent the day watching the races, including choosing the best-presented horse and exclusively enjoying a race from the Royal Box.
July: A busy month of new members, sustainability projects, birthdays and events!
July was a busy month! We’ll start off by mentioning this was when John Lenihan joined the team as Operations Manager. This was perfect-timing for us as the demand for storage services continued to grow and we were hanging on, but John, with over thirty-five years of experience in the warehouse sector, quickly became a valued member of the HBC team with his knowledge on overseeing brands and pushing growing businesses in a successful direction.
Continuing down our path of carbon neutrality, we kicked off a second project this time involving the rejuvenation of the overgrown and lacking gardens of Sutton V.A. Lower School. The work is set to begin in 2025 after the completion of major site construction, but in July we donated £850 to the school to put towards creating this space where pupils can study and enjoy nature.
Later in the month, we experienced some HBC members dressed as Snow White and the Seven Dwarves at this year’s Bedford River Festival! With Director Ben’s wife Sarah dressed as Snow White and various members of HBC as our dwarves, we were delighted to win the Best Dressed award and raise over £1000 for Sue Ryder, a wonderful charity for those coping with bereavement. 
We ended July celebrating HBC’s 7th birthday! What started as a small company with just a few vehicles and a 5,000-square-foot office has transformed into a company with a fleet of sixty plus and a 62,000-square-feet facility for our operations! Of course, we couldn’t celebrate our birthday without a delicious custom-designed HBC cake!
October: Winning the Decarbonisation Award
Our years in reducing our carbon footprint paid off when we were presented with the Decarbonisation Award at the 2024 National Courier Awards in Londonl. This ceremony invites the best-performing logistics companies to an evening of celebration, in our case the NCA recognised our efforts in reducing our carbon footprint as well as our further eco-contributions to various local businesses and schools.
Also, we were so excited to feature on TVs across the county thanks to BBC Breakfast’s coverage of Biggeswade FC’s huge FA Cup match against York City FC. HBC Director and First Team Manager, Dave Northfield, was joined by Warehouse Supervisor Wayne, and HBC worker/player Kymani where they were interviewed on the upcoming match which Biggleswade FC would give a brilliant performance in later that week.
November: Movember!
It’s not November without funky facial hair! This year’s Movember resulted in a whopping £1085 raised for charity. HBC’s Richard Plain and Ben Tucker both took part in growing out their whiskers, whilst Charley Lunt took part in charity walks. If you have followed HBC for some time, you will know we have worked with several charities to raise money for some amazing causes, from taking part in mud runs to hosting charity drop-offs on our site.
December: The ultimate finish with Platinum Triumph 
We finished the year on a high by achieving PLATINUM status as members of the United Pallet Network. Having been members of UPN for over three years, we’ve worked hard to provide exceptional customer service and establish good relations in their network.
As always, we’d like to say thank you for your continued support throughout another amazing year. Whether you’re interacting with us on social media or using our services regularly, we truly appreciate your unwavering support of HBC Logistics.
