Wilko Distribution Centres

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18 November 2021

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.

Case study: Bluestones One’s successful store closure for B&Q

Bluestones One successfully tendered for B&Q’s Store Closure Programme and was subsequently awarded 6 stores to close over a 12-month period.

Meet Richard Jones – Operations Manager

Tell us about your role at Bluestones One I have been with Bluestones One for three years. I first started on the shop floor (in the field) where I would travel the country meeting new people and completing a variety of projects. I then moved into the resource team where my role was to put teams together for various clients, this involved making sure the skill set was right. I was also responsible for making sure the accommodation is right and making sure that we, as a business, got the basics right and the teams had the right tools to deliver the best service. I am now currently the Operations Manger which means I now have my own team within the office and manage colleagues in the field. This role also includes interaction with clients to ensure they have the faith in the business to consistently deliver their requirements. I have been in retail for over 20 years now and I have enjoyed every minute of it, the different places and challenges that the job role brings. There is no better job satisfaction than knowing our colleagues in the field deliver a high standard of service to our clients and