Hilary Devey: The Freight Boss Who Built Pall-Ex
- Hilary Devey
Hilary Devey was born on 10 April 1957 in Bolton and spent her early career in the freight and haulage industry, where she saw that smaller carriers had no efficient way to move part loads.
In 1996 she founded Pall-Ex, a palletised freight distribution network built around a central hub, funding the launch by selling her house and her car.
The Pall-Ex network
Pall-Ex works as a membership network: independent hauliers feed pallets into a shared hub overnight and take back deliveries for their own region, a structure that was unusual in Britain when she launched it.
The company grew into one of the larger operators of its kind and expanded into continental Europe, and Devey was appointed CBE in 2013 for services to the transport industry.
Her two series on the panel
Devey joined Dragons' Den in 2011, taking the seat James Caan had vacated, and appeared for two series before leaving in 2012. The pitches from those runs are indexed on this site.
She went on to front other business programmes, including Channel 4's The Intern, and remained a prominent voice on logistics and on women working in industry. She died in June 2022.
Products Hilary Devey backed in the Den
Shoot It Yourself
described as professional video hiring and editing business
Unique Ideas UK
described as corporate events and entertainment including the cyclone gamecube
Raskelf Memory Foam
pitched as a zip-up memory foam mattress and duvet combo