Profile of a Dragon: Hilary Devey

Today, Hilary Devey is a well-known public figure, appearing on Dragons’ Den as an angel investor. She has also been recognised within the field of logistics, being the only woman to be awarded the Chartered Institute of Logistics’ Sir Robert Lawrence Award for Lifetime Achievement, the International Freight Weekly Awards Personality of the Year and the Truck & Driver/Iveco Stralis Driver Choice Award.

However Hilary Devey was not born with a silver spoon in her mouth. Her childhood saw the bankruptcy of her publican father and visits by bailiffs, and she left school at the age of 16. She then entered the Women’s Royal Air Force, but by the time she was 20 years old she had rejoined civilian life and took a job with Tebbut and Britten in their sales and logistics division. After cutting her teeth with Tebbut and Britten, where she stayed for ten years, she moved on to a Sales Director Position with the United Carriers division Scorpio Logistics. From this role she took on the role of National Sales Director with TNT. In 1994 she set up in business for herself, working as a consultant.

So, in 1996 she had two decades of experience in the logistics injury – experience that she took advantage of when she set up her own company, Pall-Ex. The inspiration behind Pall-Ex came when she overheard a client talking about delivery times for three pallets of goods – 12 days from south Wales to Carlisle. Her logistics experience with parcels didn’t jibe with what she heard, but she soon discovered that the problem was the economic inefficiency of running a vehicle that was not fully loaded.

Devey came up with the idea of establishing a ‘membership’ through which hauliers could combine their deliveries at a central hub, in a similar fashion to FedEx, and then load their trucks with the goods that were destined for their own postcodes. While hauliers’ co-operatives had existed before, the central hub was Devey’s innovation. The model increased efficiency and cost-effectiveness, while decreasing delivery time. Devey’s remuneration? A fixed price of £2.85 per pallet.

The idea could have remained simply that, as Devey could not get a bank loan and her business contacts were not interested in equity stakes. Rather than allow the idea to fail, Devey took the brave step of selling her car and house in order to raise the £112,000 she needed. She then drove 2,000 miles every week as she tried to persuade hauliers to join her scheme. Combating misogyny and preconceptions along the way, she convinced 30 firms of the merits of her plan, and launched Pall-Ex at the end of November in 1996. The company broke even within a year and and handled its millionth pallet in 1999. Today the company brings in annual sales of over £100 million. Devey declines to release the net worth of the company, but it is considered to be in excess of £100 million – and Devey is the sole owner.

Rachel is a business blogger with a background working in UK logistics.

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