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Case Study: Wilko

Summary

With current labour challenges across the sector, Wilko Retail Ltd were facing a team member short fall on the run up to peak Christmas demand in their two distribution centres at Worksop in Nottinghamshire and Magor in Newport. 

Our merchandising team identified an opportunity to work collaboratively with Wilko to help support their requirements at a time when merchandising in-store is traditionally quieter, to reduce customer disruption during a key sales period.

Challenges

Distribution centres have lots of new Health and Safety challenges, such as lorry routes and forklift truck movements that the teams were not used to working with. 

The team received extensive training beforehand and they were then able to support in a number of roles including picking stock, loading store deliveries, offloading containers and organising recycling and salvage. 

Results

The Bluestones One merchandising team were able to support both distribution centres with up to 60 people, around the clock, over a 7-week period to help fulfil their peak demand. 

This will now become a successful seasonal collaboration and opportunity for both businesses going forward.

Meet the team: Andy Smethurst

Meet Andy Smethurst: Account Manager

Tell us about your role at Bluestones OneI’m an Account Manager.  How would you normally start your day at work?Reviewing the previous days/night’s progress and activity to ensure everything has gone smoothly, is on track and the customer is happy. What does a typical day at work look like for you?It can be very varied from one day to the next, but my priority is ensuring our customers receive best in class service from us. What do you find challenging?Last minute changes to plans or schedules can be challenging, but this can also be rewarding when the project lands and you know the changes were for the best. What do you enjoy?The variety of customers, projects and the enthusiasm of the people that I work with. What’s the best thing about working at Bluestones One?The people and the variety of projects.

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