How Smart UK rebuilt and optimised its finished vehicle supply chain for efficiency
At Automotive Logistics & Supply Chain UK, Smart UK Automotive's Stephanie Budd explained how she's worked to "re-optimise" the OEM's supply chain with a focus on speed and cost efficiency.
Alongside delivering a session at ALSC UK, Stephanie Budd, UK sales planning and logistics manager at Smart UK Automotive, sat down with Automotive Logistics on the Red Sofa to discuss how the company has transformed its UK operations and reimagined its EV-only finished vehicle supply chain to tackle tariff, EV handling and cost pressures.
Supply chain optimisation
"Something we've tried to do at Smart since I joined is to re-optimise the supply chain to make it more cost efficient and make the supply chain quicker, which is really important with the UK being a build-to-stock market," said Budd. "Stock needs to be available quickly and delivered reliably on time. which is the most important thing for us."
One of the key changes that Budd has implemented in her role is the adoption of a model in which supply enters the UK via mainland Europe using a supplier that has chartered daily sailings across the North Sea. According to Budd, this strategy has numerous advantages.
"We don't have to hold as much stock here now in the UK; we can hold more stock over the water, which is cheaper and also helps because there's a lot of congestion at UK ports as the sales volume has grown with new entrants but port storage isn't increasing at the same rate," she said.
Like many China-based OEMs, Smart has ambitious plans for growth in the UK market, making scaling up logistics operations to support this growth a strategic priority.
"The most important thing with the UK's build-to-stock market, especially when you're growing as a new brand and scaling, is that you have enough storage to accommodate your growth aspirations, ensuring your supply chain that can get product to your customers quickly," said Budd. "Having this model where we have an increased amount of storage across the water at Zeebrugge and within the UK gives us even more capacity to deliver on the growth aspirations we have as our brand."
Balancing cost, speed and resilience
Budd shared with Automotive Logistics Smart's strategy for balancing key priorities, including cost efficiency, operational speed and supply chain resilience. Once cars are imported to Europe, they are stored in a bonded warehouse and, once they are sold, they are then shipped to the UK under a transit document.
"That delays any fees that we have to pay until they are cleared within the UK," explained Budd. "At that point, we've already got a sold order for that car, so we've got the cash flow coming back in – that's how we manage the tariffs in terms of UK supply chain."
She noted that Smart has also realised efficiencies through reducing the trucking distance from the UK port where a vehicle arrives to the end user.
Capacity constraints
Budd noted that capacity constraints are a concern for UK automotive logistics today, and claimed that the influx of new OEMs from abroad are putting further pressure on the country's logistics capacity.
"There are so many new entrants now and a lot of them are adopting a direct-to-UK supply model, which means that they're building a lot of stock for their peaks at the ports within the UK," Budd said. "Because of the new entrants and because the sales volume is growing so much, there isn't the same capacity at ports that there was before, which is why we've had to be creative about the supply chain model for Smart to find another way to be able to ensure we've got the right stock available and around us for when it's required."
She touched on a significant issue that has been prominent in the UK logistics sector, especially since the UK's departure from the European Union – driver availability.
"Since Brexit, we haven't got as many drivers available as we had before to help with these peaks and troughs in demand, so we tasked our suppliers when we went out for tender last year to say that we're open to share trucking with their other customers, and we've left that with our suppliers to do as they see fit," she said, emphasising that avoiding empty transporters can help to improve efficiency and ultimately benefits the industry as a whole.
On her top priority for the remainder of 2026, Budd identified a key goal as establishing a robust supply chain that can grow with Smart as a brand to meet its aspirations while maintaining stability and reliability.
