Portcentric solutions reduce miles, time and cost
PERFECT BLEND: the interior of the Rubb building provided for Twinings Tea at Port of Tyne
Import Services delivers millions of cartons every year to retailers in the UK and across Europe, including names such as Argos, Boots, John Lewis, Sainsbury and Tesco.
“Our portcentric DCs act as hubs clustered around Southampton Container Terminal,” says client service director Mike Thomas. The company’s service include consolidation, mainly in Asia; inbound shipping and freight forwarding; bonded storage at three sites, totalling 300,000 sq ft; high-volume order processing, pick and pack, distribution and returns management.
“If product can be sent direct to store or B2C directly from Import Services, this removes the need for inland movement to DCs and RDCs altogether, saving a significant proportion of both time and cost along the supply chain,” says Mr Thomas. “The retail market is ever moving towards more frequent orders with less volume per order. The significant of consolidation in terms of minimising empty road miles and delivering parcel-based orders wherever practicable either direct to store or to consumer is therefore front of mind. Our ambition is to develop further within Southampton container port, expanding our portcentric business model.”
Brochure and catalogue fulfilment provider Spark Response works closely with the Port of Tyne to meet the up and downs in storage demand.
“As an outsourced service provider to the e-commerce market, our business is highly seasonal, with most of our clients seeing their peak months between September and January,” says managing director Peter Slee. “During these peaks, we find ourselves needing to expand our own storage facilities and use the services of our partner, Port of Tyne, who provide us with around a 25% expansion on our existing footprint. Port of Tyne stores slow-moving and bulky items so that we are able to free up enough space to handle the influx in orders of more fast-moving and ‘on trend’ items.”
Spark has recently started offering a storage service to local business, although Mr Slee says that offering “pure” storage has never been an option for the company.
Short-term storage is a definite requirement in the current economic climate, he says. “Businesses don’t want to lose work and be under-utilised or under-capacity. At the same time, businesses don’t want to get into a situation where they are over-utilised and turning down work. In this case, a short-term outsourcing facility can become essential.”
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