Wickes & Wincanton

Wickes & Wincanton Make A Winning Team

The challenge

To increase efficiency at the Wickes warehouse and further improve supply chain standards in their partnership with Wincanton.

 

The solution

To build a logistics structure that covers the warehouse loading doors and delivery vehicles and provides a safe environment for goods, drivers and warehouse staff during fulfilment operations.

Key facts 

  • Fabric covered
  • LED lighting to 150lux
  • 27m x 10m x 5m
  • Open-fronted
  • Wall mounted

Project overview

Wincanton is a leading supply chain partner for British businesses and has been working with Wickes across several areas of the home improvement retailer’s business since 2017.  While Wickes already had a high standard of efficiency and customer service with its own model of home deliveries, they have developed an initiative with Wincanton to further improve customer fulfilment.  

Showroom kitchen and bathroom items are loaded onto ‘final delivery vehicles’ in Northampton and then moved to three parking locations operated by Wincanton where drivers will be swapped. Using an innovative route planning system, developed in conjunction with Wickes, this model ensures a fresh driver completes the rest of the delivery, along the most efficient route, allowing for a more flexible and effective service to customers’ homes.

At the heart of this partnership is a commitment to meet the growing needs and expectations of customers in the best way possible and it was awarded the ‘DP World Award for Retail Innovation’ at the Supply Chain Excellence awards on 5th November 2019.

We were contacted in 2021 about designing and installing a temporary fabric covered structure at the Wickes site in Northampton that could provide shelter for the Wincanton double decker trailers when loading and off-loading goods.  The job took place during three of the most devastating storms to hit the UK in Feb ’22 and we had to take the team off site several times as the conditions weren’t safe.  The swirling winds, caused by high buildings around the site, made it nigh on impossible to predict the wind gusts and direction they were travelling.  This meant that on the good days, we would work into the evenings to ensure we didn’t lose any time.  Since one of the benefits of choosing a prefabricated building is the quick installation time, it was important that we fulfilled this expectation from the customer regardless of the climatic setbacks so that there was minimal disruption to their daily operations.

At 27m wide x 10m long x 5m high internally, we mounted the frame to their existing warehouse building and kept the front fully open to allow for continuous access to vehicles.  LED lighting to 150 lux was also supplied to create optimum lighting for a safe working environment.

“Your guys have been an absolute pleasure to work with”, Ben Whiting, Warehouse Manager, Wickes

“Brilliant communication all round from your men”, Ian Root, Shift Manager, Wincanton