Dipali Patel

Women in Logistics and the Beauty Supply Chain


Over the years, ILG has grown into a market leader in outsourced fulfilment and delivery, and specialists in ecommerce and retail fulfilment for beauty, cosmetics and wellbeing brands. Today, we serve some of the highest profile, High Street names within these sectors including Charlotte Tilbury, Trinny London, Iconic London, This Works and The INKEY List.

Much of our growth and success is attributable to our pool of incredible female talent. From the very beginning we have been committed to operating an inclusive, equal and diverse workplace, all despite the stereotypical image of the logistics and warehouse sector as being male-dominated and unreceptive to women.

Undoubtedly, outdated mindsets have generated a bias that obstructed the career progression of so many women in our industry. Whether deliberate or unconscious, bias has made it difficult for women to move ahead. But, just knowing that bias exists isn’t enough. The bias must be broken.

At ILG, we celebrate and embrace diversity in the workplace. 41% of our workforce is female, which is almost double the average proportion for warehousing and logistics businesses across the UK. This female representation at ILG is growing too, with a 7.5% rise in the share of women in our workforce between April 2020 and April 2021.

Dipali, Warehouse Section Manager at ILG, talks about the importance of female representation in logistics:

Being a woman in logistics can be difficult. You are working in a very male-orientated environment, and you need to work hard, but the rewards are well worth the effort and ILG has worked extremely hard to ensure myself and the other women at ILG are allowed to develop their careers. It is an industry of opportunity and I’d encourage any woman out there considering logistics as a future career opportunity to go for it! We need your voice, your perfect self and your ideas in our industry.”

Positive representation doesn’t stop there. ILG women hold an impressive 42% of leadership positions, which is perfectly in step with our overall percentage of female workers and exceeds the national average by 17%. In comparison, research from SHD Logistics shows the average proportion of female managers or directors in UK transport and storage firms to be just 1 in 4.

Emerging female talent is quickly recognised at ILG too. Over the last 12 months, 39 out of 85 ILG promotions were achieved by women employees.

Rachel, Regional Operations Manager at ILG, tells us about her successful career journey after two promotions with ILG:

“I joined ILG as a Warehouse Manager managing Charlotte Tilbury at one of our sites. Over the two and a half years, we grew from strength to strength. After a successful peak, I was promoted to Area Warehouse Manager where I gained responsibility for two additional sites. In February this year, I was promoted to Regional Operations Manager, an exciting new role where I am looking to implement and influence positive change across the business.”

Whilst the world has witnessed significant improvements in women’s workplace equality in recent years, it is clear that we still have a long way to go, especially in industries such as logistics which have been so male-orientated in the past. At ILG, we are proud to be blazing a trail for gender equality, driven by the outstanding women whose commitment, talent and creativity help to push us forward and shape our company. It is a real privilege to work alongside so many strong women from such diverse backgrounds who contribute so much to ILG’s success.

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