Day One - Empty orange carpets to meet Helix the robot mascot of IMHX and a herd of Investec Zebra.

Tuesday Sept 24, lashings of Birmingham morning rain for a sixteen pound NEC car park arrival, and a pound a go for brolly, coat and bag at the cloakroom clocking up nearly twenty pounds before reaching the orange carpets that were particularly thin for the sector's exploding numbers, but let's not forget this is a four-day show.

Robots on the rise! AI and technology on many stands, 450 exhibitors in almost 400,000 sq feet is what gave the space to walk and talk.

A-Frame yellow barriers to race cars at Briggs for Yale fork trucks. A training village, a fork truck driver area, IMHX is everything you need for the warehouse and all under one huge roof in a giant L-shape of NEC halls.

UKWA pavilion hosted tea and coffee for IOC as fellows watched Peter Ward do his warehouse TV interviews to showcase the UK Warehousing platforms.

Women in Logistics conference for Wednesday, Clipper Logistics Jennifer Swain talking inclusion.

More seminars in the Skills Zone with workshops for companies seeking to strengthen their workforce. Workforce expectation special on the IOC web as the Thomas Cook job line connects candidates to jobs in final mile via the DWP Job Centre Plus connections of Alex Farkas.

Top spot of the seminars for event sponsor Investec. Not just an orange carpet trade show at the NEC, IMHX seminars stacked and racked. First day, top spot, Centre Stage for the opening day keynote was a Brexit masterclass by Investec as visitors to the NEC took places on the comfy black seats, ‘the reality of Brexit, a govt 45 short of a majority.’

Philip Shaw, Investec, I think an election is pretty likely in the next few months.

‘Customs checks and regulatory checks, the back-stop, Northern Ireland and the back-stop. The problems: UK could be trapped in the back-stop indefinitely, the second point, Northern Ireland could be treated differently to the UK, the third issue is the political declaration.’ ‘We can’t rule out something changing, an election and or a referendum, the majority has gone with the last by-election. Today the govt is 45 short of a majority to vote. I think an election is pretty likely in the next few months. The DUP has ten MPs and does not want a no-deal Brexit. 10 MPs still will not deliver a majority.’ ‘An election after UK leaves EU will help Tories by neutralising the Brexit party.’

Goods across border. ‘Temporary tariff scheme, imposed on 87% of imports, duration 12 months, 13 free trade agreements being signed so far. world economic activity has slowed, there has been no acceleration since Q1 this year. The economic perspective, Trump started a tariff war last year. We think progress will be slow in the next two years. 45 central banks around the world have cut rates, we do not think Bank of England will cut rates.

Clare Bottle, warehousing director Coca Cola,

‘This is Forward’ The logistics of being more sustainable.’ We measure ourselves on unit cases, 2.5 billion, 5 factories across Great Britain, the biggest in Wakefield, two in London. Our sustainability action plan is called ‘This is Forward.’ Stock loss is a waste of money, controlling food waste is important. We signed up to the Courtauld Commitment, launched in 2005 with other signatories including the national supermarkets.’ ‘For us nothing goes to landfill, good stock handling helps reduce food waste, rotation is key, selling the oldest stock is not easy across a network, circulating stock including returns reduces the risk of waste. Units such as underweight or light fills are rotated through our company shop group that needs a membership card to purchase. We also work with FareShare linked to charities, hostels and food banks. Five million pigs in the UK, it is no longer legal to feed catering waste.’

Tracey Worth talks diversity and inclusion with Bethany Fovargue Women in logistics on the IMHX Big Bang theatre stage

A-Safe, Richard Elphee talks rack eye safety in the sortation shed.

IOC Tracey Worth talks National Courier Awards date, Oct 15 with Mike Daly, DTS Clipper Logistics and Transaid Ambassador

IMHX 2019 Gallery