Introduction
Since the mid 90’s Recruit Retail Services plc have been implementing range change projects for B&Q in its 300+ stores around the UK and Ireland. As B&Q’s development programme became more aggressive the number of range change projects increased and our service offer extended accordingly. To cut down on the number of ‘aborted stores’, due to lost or missing equipment, our merchandising teams carried all equipment and POS direct to store.
Situation
In 1993, B&Q embarked on their Warehouse store concept and over a period of time the equipment we were delivering to store soon became bigger, heavier and bulkier. We found the use of Iveco vans to carry equipment to site was no longer cost effective for the client. The second challenge was borne out of our new Master Vendor agreement; we were now managing a large network of merchandising organisations that did not have the capabilities to carry equipment at all. We needed a solution to reduce cost, but remain under our Management.
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Solution
Working with the client we enlisted the support of a nationwide logistics provider, who would deliver the equipment into store to meet the implementation teams. To avoid the problem of it being lost in store we offered a managed service. All equipment would be clearly labelled and subject to the client’s request, the stores could call our support centre to ‘check-in’ the delivery, or our support centre would call them to confirm receipt. Our logistics provider would also advise all delivery dates and times, as they took place. When our teams arrived on site, if they had problems locating the equipment they couldd simply call our support centre, which had the location information to hand.
Result
As a result of the success of these developments, our Project Team are always encouraged to take an innovative and pro-active approach to their customers. If a system is not working or can be improved we should make it OUR priority to change it!