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Retail & Consumer Products

Drive efficiencies
in Supply Chain

A major UK high street retailer has a multiple number of Distribution Centres (DC’s) that are managed internally and with 3rd Party Logistics companies. In order to drive efficiencies in their Supply Chain, Retail Reply helped the client streamline these capabilities to save operational costs.

The Challenge

The high street retailer ran 3 different specific operations in their respective DC’s which had a high operational cost. The existing processes were inefficient and is supported by a number of key legacy applications. This made it difficult to scale up the operational efficiency and reduce the cost to business. The client expressed an interest to move ‘non-core’ activities out of their operational cost.

The Solution

The ‘non-core’ activities were defined (6 in total). 2 of the highest priority activities were selected due to cost benefits to the retailer. The idea was to centralise the operations and split the process between a distribution and a fulfilment centre. It was decided to outsource this to a 3rd Party Logistics service provider:

  • Design and move the Pre-Retailing operation from manual DC’s to an efficient DC which is scalable and resilient in all aspects,
  • Design and move 1-man Returns from a manual DC to the same centralised DC where the Pre-Retailing operation will be carried out, deriving maximum efficiency.
The location of this centralised DC was chosen in such a way that the products is able to reach key ‘branches’ in the shortest possible time hence reducing the time to market outbound, and to refund Customer in shorter timelines inbound to the client.

The Result

Retail Reply helped the retailer with following benefits:
  • Reduction in Direct Pay & Fixed costs for 3rd Party service provider,
  • Reduction in Transportation costs,
  • Reduction in warehouse operational costs,
  • Better stock availability and visibility,
  • Flexible, scalable IT and Operational solution.