Episode #17
TWIL: Employing People with Disabilities in Logistics: Hone's Approach to Running a High-Performance 3PL with Special Guest Sharon Prasad, Operations Manager
Purpose. People. Proof. A social enterprise running 200 supported employees across multiple sites. A candle brand built from scratch by the people making it. And a 3PL winning large contracts — not because of charity, but because of results. This is the season one finale of This Week in Logistics, and it is a different kind of episode. CartonCloud CEO Shaun Hagen sits down with Sharon, Operations Manager at Hone — formerly Hoxton Industries — a Southwest Sydney social enterprise that has been delivering supported employment since 1969. What started as a bike repair program has grown into a multi-service operation running destruction, packaging, point of sale, return and earn, and 3PL — plus Lumiere, a candle and home fragrance brand made entirely by Hone's people from start to finish. The conversation goes beyond logistics. It is about what happens when you build an operation around purpose first — and how that discipline produces better outcomes. Sharon makes a case that most operators will not have heard before: that running a workforce with additional support needs forces the kind of clarity, structure, and communication that most operations only aspire to. The businesses that struggle, she says, are the ones where nobody really knows what the processes are. Hone does not have that luxury. And it turns out it delivers better results. At the same time, she is direct about the parts that do not make the brochure. Funding is inconsistent. Cost structures are genuinely complex. Running a commercial business while advocating for workers who deserve the opportunity is a constant balancing act. It is not always clean. But it is always worth it. The question most logistics operators ask is how to do more with less. The more useful one might be whether the operation is actually built around the people doing the work. This episode covers: How Hone grew from a local bike repair program into a multi-service 3PL with its own consumer brand — and why growth has always followed purpose, not the other way around Why structure and clarity are not optional when your workforce has additional support needs — and why that standard makes Hone a better operator across the board How Hone wins and retains major clients like Vision Australia and Medtronic — on time delivery, accurate orders, and radical honesty when things go wrong What meaningful employment actually looks like for the 200 people working across Hone's sites — and why the confidence that comes from doing a job well cannot be engineered through a KPI system Where Lumiere came from, what it represents for Hone's people, and why it changes how the community sees the business entirely Why partnering with a social enterprise is a commercial decision, not a charitable one — and what operators get in return: reliability, commitment, and people who genuinely want to be there What Sharon would tell any logistics operator thinking about employing people with disabilities or partnering with a social enterprise: start with an open mind and leave the assumptions at the door The best operators are clear about what they stand for, know their people, and do not wait for the market to calm down before they get disciplined.
