- The Client
Brand Retail; A marketing strategy and visual merchandising specialist working with blue chip companies including Boots and Argos. Brand
Retail had been asked to design,
manufacturer and distribute a point of sales display stand to be used in Argos stores. The project was undertaken in conjunction with some of Argos’s key suppliers Babyliss and Remington and the
stand was designed to display their hair care and personal grooming products.Brand Retail had a very tight dead-line to get the stands in to store before the Christmas peak. Brand Retail needed a
logistics partner who could manage and complete the entire distribution operation.
- The Brief
To deliver 300 “EPC” point of sale units to 300 Argos stores in under a 3 week window throughout mainland UK and Northern Ireland. All this
had to be achieved including collection and consolidation of the component parts within a fixed budget.
The EPC display units were assembled in Milton Keynes.The hair care and personal grooming products by Babyliss and Remington were made
available by Argos from their distribution centres in; Bridgewater, Burton on Trent, Kettering and Magna Park Lutterworth.
The display stands were finally assembled and products were dummified ready for despatch in Aylesbury. Due to the limited space in Milton
Keynes and Aylesbury a ‘just in time’ approach was adopted to manage the assembly of the goods. Co-ordination between all the relevant parties had to be exact to ensure that the delivery window was
met before deadline.
All the deliveries were made to Argos retail outlets that were located on high streets, retail parks or indoor shopping centres. All the
deliveries had to be arranged with the store managers and delivering vehicles were planned and scheduled to accommodate the stores access limitations and working patterns of the staff.
- The Solution
Brand Retail approached K and K Services as they required a completely bespoke distribution solution that many third party logistics
providers could not provide in a cost effective and timely manner. When the right delivery solution was being considered it was quickly established that;
- The existing distribution infrastructure that Argoshad in place was not going to be able to manage the deliveries. Without a catalogue
number none of the display units could be recognised by their automated order and stock management systems.
- The option to put the completed palletised display unit with accompanying stock pallet through a parcel network would have been extremely
costly and it would also have been too large for their automated handling systems.
- The number of times pallet networks would have had to handle the tall thin and fragile display stand would have put it at great risk of
damage which could not have been accepted as the hand made and extremely valuable unit was going to be difficult to replace.
The solution that was decided upon incorporated existing fleet vehicles with additional dedicated hired in vehicles and the help of third
party transport providers.
Full stock loads of 33 EPC units were trunked on articulated curtain sided vehicles from the assembly plant to the collation site. A mixture
of K and K fleet vehicles along with pallet network members collected the products from the Argos distribution centres and delivered them to the collation plant.
Each of the 300 stores required two pallets, one with the boxes of the product and the other with the EPC unit.
The stores approximately within a 70 miles radius of Aylesbury were delivered on 18 tonne curtain sided rigid vehicles, that worked for the
entire 3 week period delivering between 5 and 7 stores each day.
Stores in the outlaying areas of the UK were delivered by regionally based hauliers.
The EPC units were either trunked from Aylesbury to the haulier’s depots by K and K vehicles or collected directly by the regional haulier. Once the hauliers had the goods back at their depots they
arranged the booking in and deliveries from there.
- The Result
All 300 units and stock pallets were delivered to the Argos stores within the 3 week window none of the units were damaged and the positive
reaction from Brand Retail prompted them to contract K and K Services for the distribution of the Play table to 90 Argos stores.
“Great job, thank you very much you and your team have been fantastic.”
Paul Sadler, Co-founder and
Director of Brand Retail Ltd.
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