Clipper Logistics Group
Clipper Logistics, the UK's leading retail and high value logistics provider, has been working in partnership with John Lewis since January 2010, providing an e-fulfilment clothing solution from its 500sqft ‘Centre of e-fulfilment Excellence’ facility at Ollerton near Newark.
The Customer
The John Lewis Partnership is a visionary business, for over a century; the company has built its foundations on the principle of putting the happine ss of its Partners at the heart of its proposition. Today, the company operates 30 John Lewis shops across the UK (28 department stores and 2 John Lewis at home), johnlewis.com, 231 Waitrose supermarkets and Greenbee.com, a direct services company. The business has an annual turnover of over £7.4bn. It is the UK's largest example of worker co-ownership where all 70,000 staff are Partners in the business.
John Lewis, 'Britain's favourite retailer 2009'* and 'Multiple Department Store of the Year 2009' ** typically stocks more than 350,000 separate lines in its department stores. The website stocks over 100,000 products focused on the best of fashion, beauty, home and giftware and electrical items including online exclusives. johnlewis.com is consistently ranked one of the top online shopping destinations in the UK. www.johnlewis.com
* Verdict consumer satisfaction index, January 2010
** The Drapers Awards for fashion retail, October 2009
Over the past four years, John Lewis Department Stores has experienced approximately 20% growth and with a multi-billion pound turnover over the last year – each and every one of its partners share in the benefits and profits of the business.
The Challenge
Following the introduction of its on-line clothing offer, John Lewis experienced a significant peak in demand during the Christmas period 2009. With this is mind, the retailer made the significant move to separate their on-line fashion offer from their other on-line offerings, to an alternative specialist clothing e-fulfilment provider.
Clipper Logistics were approached in January 2010 to manage John Lewis’s entire on-line clothing requirement, with the challenge to be fully integrated and commence live operations in just 14 weeks, a process which can usually take up to nine months. The scale of the operation was to accommodate an immediate demand of 80,000 on-line SKUs, with a post go-live operation with scalability to accommodate 150,000 SKUs.
The Solution
Based on the Clipper ethos of ‘agility matched by ability’, Clipper Logistics was quick to respond, working in close partnership with John Lewis to understand and facilitate their exact requirements. After a series of meetings, the project team, headed up by Director, Sean Fahey, set about producing a robust operational model to handle the current and further growth planned by the retailer for its on-line fashion offer. The project had a requirement for full IT systems integration with John Lewis’s systems including Metapack and the Clipper e-fulfilment WMS solution. The project was also to include carrier contingency software, a business continuity programme, ‘Click and Collect’ in store service, and the restructuring over 160k sqft of warehouse space, including the installation of conveyor systems for hanging and boxed stock and the creation of sufficient packing stations. Clipper was also required to expand its returns service through the Enfield site to accommodate a greater John Lewis fashion element.
The Result
The Clipper ‘go live’ launch was a seamless operation, completed in just eight weeks. The implementation of the new systems and warehouse facilities were complete and the first dispatch of outbound orders went out on time and without a hitch.
To meet customers’ needs, Clipper employs over 60 staff to manage the 24/7 John Lewis operation, which includes a standard, next day, Saturday, named day and timed day delivery service direct to customers homes and a ‘click and collect’ delivery in-store option. Clipper also manages all inbound deliveries, which includes items direct from John Lewis, as well as liaising with around 35 other premium clothing suppliers including Ted Baker, Kaliko, Phase Eight and Jaeger.
The Clipper John Lewis operation has over 19,000 flat locations in a combination of shelving and pigeonhole locations to accommodate different garment types in the Men’s, Women’s and Childrenswear range and footwear, and 60,550 hanging locations across three different garments heights. The 5-year contract is expected to develop further over the coming months as John Lewis has ambitious plans for their on-line business, and currently demonstrates continual week on week growth. Clipper’s policy of continuous solution refinement will further enhance the service offering for John Lewis customer base in the future.
Client Testimonial
Dino Rocos, Operations Director, John Lewis said: “We chose Clipper as our partner for our expanding on-line clothing business in light of their extensive operational knowledge of both the clothing and e-fulfilment markets. It was extremely important to us to find a partner who could understand our exact requirements, and one that could work alongside us to deliver a successful project in a very tight timeframe. Clipper have demonstrated that “ability matched by ability” truly exists within their business, and we are extremely happy with the results they have delivered.”
Sean Fahey, IT and Project Director, Clipper Logistics Group Ltd said: “I am delighted to add John Lewis to our expanding e-fulfilment client base. The team provided a faultless transfer from John Lewis’s previous supplier within weeks of the request being made. We were able to leverage our extensive experience in delivering tailored solutions to protect the John Lewis brand whilst adding greater efficiency and service to the operation. We have seen this demonstrated in increasing orders whilst beating all KPI targets, and foresee a great future to this relationship.”