Mark in Action Winners' Stories: Helen Owen

Our Mark in Action awards are a testament to the individuals and teams who embody The Unipart Way, in the way they think, work and behave to deliver value for our customers.

Oli Wanklyn, Senior Operations Manager at Sky nominated Helen Owen, Fleet Operations Manager for her dedication, meticulous planning, and unwavering commitment that perfectly embodies what it means to go above and beyond for our customers

Last year, Sky UK underwent a large-scale change in their business, which resulted in the requirement for over 400 vehicles to be collected on the same day at the end of May. The responsibility for ensuring seamless execution fell to the Unipart Fleet Team, with Helen at the forefront, meticulously planning and coordinating each vehicle movement down to the finest detail.

Helen faced an unprecedented challenge—organising all of the vehicle movements within three weeks and navigating ever-changing details through continuous problem solving and demonstration of a growth mindset.

By thinking, working and behaving in The Unipart Way, she played a pivotal role in keeping Sky’s operations moving during the change, and ultimately working better by ensuring the smooth transition into their new Home Services structure.

She demonstrated CARE as the way she behaved, specifically Always deliver excellence, by putting in additional hours, she proactively led cross team meetings with much more senior stakeholders, she handled pressure like it was second nature, truly going above and beyond.

Helen’s exceptional efforts to deliver Unipart’s customer promise through The Unipart Way, made this project a resounding success and further strengthened Unipart’s value to Sky as their supply chain performance improvement partner.

Rob Hannam, Head of Fleet, said: "By completing the project on time Sky was able to save on lease costs of over 400 vehicles which would have been incurred if the project had taken any longer. Helen has been instrumental in making this a success, she has led by example and presented Unipart in the best possible light, exactly how we like to operate as One Team."

Sky's comments on this - "Helen owned everything about this project and the level of responsibility she took was above what was expected. She led the Sky project team calls to ensure the information being shared was accurate and in the hands of the right people. With an immaculate level of detail".

"There are very few occasions where one person's efforts have made such a major impact on a piece of work, this is one of those occasions"

The Next Mark in Action ceremony will take place on Wednesday 28th May, 2025. If there is an individual or group in your team who you think deserves recognition then please send in your nomination by using the form here.

If you aren't sure whether your story is a Mark in Action or not, just contact Katie Geddes Mark in Action Manager, who is happy to advise and support you through the process.

You can find out more about Mark in Action awards here.