Pictured above: Jo Dowdall (right) from Investors in Excellence presenting Tony Shally, Helen Crooks (co-directors of Espace Europe) with their Commitment to Investors in Excellence certificate

A Staffordshire-based freight forwarding company have become one of the first companies in their industry to commit to the Investors in Excellence (IiE) Standard, a nationally recognised framework for business improvement.

Espace Europe is working towards the IiE Standard, which aims to guide and help drive sustainable improvement across all areas of an organisation, to deliver better services and increase profits.

It covers all key business areas, including leadership, people and customer results. The scope of the Standard makes it a very powerful improvement tool that delivers real, tangible results to businesses.

Helen Crooks, Managing Director of Espace Europe, feels this particular improvement model was the best fit for her company.

"We'd previously assumed that business improvement was the sole responsibility of the company Directors. Investors in Excellence Ltd, who deliver the IiE Standard, have shown us that we have to engage all our staff in business improvement activities," said Helen.

"Empowering different staff members to deliver specific bite-sized business improvement projects, has not only taken a considerable work load off the Directors, but also allowed us to show a visible vote of confidence in our staff delivering these projects." Helen added.

Ian Nield, Chief Executive of Investors in Excellence Ltd, said: "We are thrilled that Espace Europe Ltd is leading the way in their industry by truly committing to continuous improvement and excellent standards."

Espace Europe offer comprehensive European road and International air and sea freight solutions to over 600 U.K customers. European road freight has always been their core service offering.

However, Espace Europe have recently partnered with a large forwarding company in China, and hope that this will be the catalyst for their projected growth over the next 4 years. The business plans to grow turnover from £8-12 million by 2015, and envisage an ever-increasing proportion of their turnover to come from the Far-East import market.