April’s changes to minimum wage and National Insurance (NI) are driving even greater interest in digitalisation for manufacturers, contract packers, and logistics providers across the UK. Nulogy, the leading provider of purpose-built software for external manufacturing and contract packing operations, is seeing a surge in interest as businesses seek to offset the financial pressures of wage and national insurance hikes.
The UK government’s changes to both the National Minimum Wage and employer National Insurance contributions, are adding significant pressure to labour-intensive operations, particularly those operating on tight margins. With many unable to pass on costs through pricing, attention has turned to ensuring efficiencies in production and digitalisation is driving opportunities for improvement in many organisations.
“Certainly, there are some headwinds for all employers at the moment,” said Michael Briggs, Managing Director of Marsden Packaging. “Those that trade on very tight margins are going to struggle if they can’t recover the extra cost through price increases or efficiency gains via automation or digitalisation. With Nulogy’s software for contract packing operations, we had a good year last year, and I am forecasting, despite the cost increases, another one this year.”
Digitalisation is gaining momentum as businesses look to reduce reliance on manual reporting, enhance workflow visibility, and make better use of labour. Real-time monitoring tools and data-driven platforms such as those available from Nulogy allow for tighter labour planning, improved resource allocation, and faster identification of bottlenecks and inefficiencies.
Ian Wright, Managing Director at Prism eLogistics, has recently chosen Nulogy to drive efficiencies and mitigate the impact of recent employment changes, “Labour cost increases hit logistics and fulfilment operations in a particularly hard way because they impact many points in the process, from goods receiving to packing and dispatch,” he said. “With wage and NI rises, we need to be more precise in how we plan and allocate our teams. Without greater visibility across the workflow, it’s easy for labour costs to creep up.”
In response, Nulogy has seen growing adoption of its Shop Floor solution, designed to provide real-time visibility into manual production environments, as well as its Smart Factory platform, which offers comprehensive monitoring for machine-intensive production lines. Together, these solutions help manufacturers, packers,
Release Ref: NUL2025.008 Issue Date: 14/04/2025
and logistics providers improve efficiency, manage labour costs, and build more resilient operations.
“As the cost of employing people continues to rise, companies are looking for practical, data-driven ways to stay competitive without compromising on quality or service,” said Josephine Coombe, Chief Commercial Officer, Nulogy Europe. “The demand we’re seeing is a direct reflection of how urgent this need has become.”
With labour-intensive businesses under increasing pressure, the case for digitalisation has never been clearer. By embracing platforms that support visibility, agility, and smarter resource use, businesses can not only manage costs but also prepare for long-term resilience and scalability in a shifting economic landscape.
