SOFIAH NICHOLE SALIVIO

News Editor

3PL has appointed Ryan Walker as Head of Customer Experience, marking his return to the business.

The newly created role at the Wigan-based logistics and fulfilment company reflects a stronger focus on its existing customer base following changes to service delivery and technology across the organisation.

Walker will oversee the customer journey across all touchpoints, with responsibility for customer engagement and alignment between operational teams. He will also work to bring people, processes and technology closer together as the company reshapes how it supports clients.

Based in Greater Manchester, 3PL provides outsourced fulfilment services for retailers and brands in the UK and overseas. Founded in 2006, the business operates in third-party logistics, serving direct-to-consumer and multichannel retail customers.

Customer focus

The new post signals a shift towards dedicated leadership oversight of customer experience. It forms part of a wider strategy to improve service through investment in staff and systems.

The move comes amid intense competition in outsourced fulfilment, with logistics providers under pressure to offer reliable delivery, clear visibility over orders and stock, and stronger support for brands selling across multiple channels.

3PL has developed its own technology platform, 3PL Fusion, to give customers oversight of operations. Alongside this, the company runs two main service lines: 3PL Direct for direct-to-consumer fulfilment and 3PL Flex for retailers with more complex business-to-business and direct-to-consumer requirements.

Walker’s remit includes finding ways to improve each stage of the customer journey while ensuring customer needs remain part of decision-making across the business. His appointment is tied to the company’s next phase of growth as it expands services and refines operations.

Ian Walker, Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer of 3PL, said: “I’m delighted to welcome Ryan back to the business at an exciting time for everyone associated with 3PL. As we continue to invest in our people, technology and customer proposition, the creation of this role demonstrates our commitment to delivering an exceptional experience for every customer we serve.”

“With a proven pedigree in this space, Ryan brings energy, creativity and a customer-centric mindset that aligns perfectly with our values and ambitions. His appointment will play an important role in supporting the next phase of our growth, strengthening the 3PL brand as we continue to innovate within the fulfilment and logistics sector and enhance the experience we deliver to our customers.”

Growth phase

3PL presented the appointment as part of a broader effort to strengthen service quality while adapting to changing customer expectations. For fulfilment operators, that often means balancing warehouse efficiency with faster response times, tighter integration between systems and staff, and clearer communication with clients selling across websites, marketplaces and wholesale channels.

In that context, customer experience roles have become more prominent across logistics and supply chain businesses, particularly where providers are trying to stand out through service rather than price alone. A dedicated executive focused on the customer journey can also help reduce friction between commercial, operational and technology teams.

For 3PL, the return of a former employee in a new senior role suggests the company sees value in combining institutional knowledge with a sharper service agenda. It did not disclose how long Walker previously worked at the business, but said he returns with experience in the field.

Ryan Walker said: “I’m incredibly proud to be rejoining the business and taking on this new challenge. 3PL has built a solid reputation for great service, innovation and lasting partnerships, and I am excited to help shape the next chapter of the customer experience strategy.

“My focus will be on listening to our customers, supporting our teams and identifying opportunities to enhance every stage of the customer journey. I look forward to working closely with colleagues across the business as we continue to build on the strong foundations already in place.”

The role is intended to help ensure customers remain central to decision-making as 3PL develops its operations, service model and technology platform.

Voco Oxford Thames has reported a wave of last-minute bookings from nearby residents seeking relief from the ongoing UK heatwave, with air conditioning as the main attraction.

During the last heatwave in May, the hotel picked up more than 15 room nights in a single day from people desperate to escape the heat.

Logesh Waran, hotel manager at voco Oxford Thames, said: “The hotel’s phones have been ringing off the hook with people asking one very specific question: do the rooms have air conditioning?

“The answer – yes, in every single room – was enough to convince more than a few callers to pack a bag.”

The hospitality trend extended beyond overnight stays, with voco Oxford Spires reporting a 168 per cent rise in cocktail sales and a 68.5 per cent increase in overall beverage revenue compared with the previous week during the last heatwave.

Dennis Pisarenco, director of operations at voco Oxford Spires, said: “Last month the heatwave created a fantastic atmosphere with guests making the most of our terrace, gardens and outdoor dining spaces so we’re expecting the same this week.”

Guests also appear to be making the most of the summer weather, with the Cotswolds Collins and Golden Apple cocktails proving particularly popular.

CambrianEdge.ai has launched in the UK with research into workplace AI use. The study found that 18% of organisations had rolled back or abandoned AI initiatives because of quality problems.

The findings were presented at the House of Lords and were based on a survey of 775 professionals across 104 organisations, including large companies, marketing agencies, startups, law firms and educational institutions.

The research argues that many businesses have focused on giving employees access to AI tools without putting in place the workflows needed for consistent use across teams. More than half of respondents, 55%, said isolated solo use or the lack of a structured human-machine workflow was their main operational bottleneck.

That gap appeared in several ways. According to the research, 62% of organisations had no defined process for handing off AI-generated work for human review, while 27% lacked what it described as collaboration infrastructure, such as shared access, prompt libraries, training or quality standards.

The study argues that these missing processes directly affect results. Among organisations with no infrastructure layers in place, 32% reported significant impact from AI, compared with 100% of organisations that had all five layers identified in the research: shared tool access, formal training, prompt libraries, quality standards and mandatory review processes.

Defined handoff processes were also linked to better outcomes. The survey found that 71% of organisations with structured workflows reported significant outcomes, compared with 38% of those with unstructured workflows.

The report also pointed to a disconnect between executive confidence and day-to-day practice. Citing separate data from a BCG study of 300 global chief marketing officers, it noted that 96% believed AI was driving end-to-end transformation, while nearly half still limited its use to isolated tasks handled by individual employees.

Harjiv Singh, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of CambrianEdge.ai, said the problem was organisational rather than technical. “Most organisations spent the last two years asking which AI model to subscribe to, forgetting to ask how their teams were supposed to work with it,” Singh said. “Adding AI to a system built for siloed work is like putting electric lights in a building designed for candles; the architecture needs to change, not just the bulbs. True economic value only materialises when companies abandon a fragmented stack of individual tools and build a shared, continuous workflow.”

Quality concerns

The survey suggests weak controls can reverse adoption rather than simply slow it. Eighteen per cent of respondents said their organisations had already pulled back from AI projects or dropped them altogether because of quality failures and broader adoption problems.

The finding goes to the heart of a debate facing many management teams as AI moves from individual experimentation to formal business use. While many employees now use AI tools every day, the research suggests companies often lack clear standards for review, approval and accountability.

CambrianEdge.ai compared those concerns with users of what it described as an AI-native collaborative platform. According to the company, this group recorded a 98% active engagement rate after onboarding, and 56% said their main remaining obstacle was execution velocity.

This shift came when teams consolidated research, creation, distribution and analysis into one environment instead of relying on separate tools. The study argues that moving from disconnected individual habits to a continuous team workflow changes how organisations assess the value of AI.

Policy debate

The research was presented alongside a panel discussion that included representatives from academia, business and public life. The wider study was carried out with partners including the Cambridge Central Asia Forum, Stanford SEED, US-India Strategic Partnership Forum, Gutenberg, Digimentors and Brand Communion.

Lord Raj Loomba, Member of the House of Lords and Founder and Chairman of The Loomba Foundation, linked the findings to a broader policy and governance question. “AI has arrived at a threshold where the technology is ready, but the organisational architecture has not kept pace,” Loomba said. “If we do not address this through deliberate design, we risk reducing a transformative technology to a mere collection of individual tools. The conversations we must have now, in Parliament and in boardrooms alike, must ensure that as we shape this future, intelligence remains human.”

The report said businesses should define how work moves from AI generation to human review and final deployment before trying to scale adoption. It also argued that national AI readiness measures should move beyond simple rates of tool adoption and pay more attention to workforce fluency, training and quality control.

For companies under pressure to show returns on AI spending, the findings add to evidence that adoption alone does not guarantee productivity gains. In this survey, the difference between progress and retreat appeared to depend less on the model being used than on whether organisations had built processes that let people work with it together.