Fulfilment It is estimated that the number of UK retail transactions requiring fulfilment exceeded half a billion in 2014. This represented a market of over £4bn in value and includes both warehousing and transportation services. In July 2017 we invested in Whistl Fulfilment (formerly Prism DM), as part of our strategy to grow in the e-commerce market. Whistl Fulfilment, with facilities in Farnborough and Rushden, is a long-established business in the fulfilment sector and has a range of high profile clients including Long Tall Sally, Oliver Sweeney, Brand Alley, Warner Brothers Studios, Le Chameau, National Trust and Sport Pursuit. Retailers, and particularly small to medium volume retailers, achieve e¤ciency when focused on the sourcing, marketing and selling of their products, rather than spending time and money on the preparation and execution of delivery to their customers. Whistl’s proposition is to accelerate the growth of Whistl Fulfilment’s o¦ering and be the supplier of choice for growing multi-channel retailers by o¦ering an integrated solution across the supply chain to include warehousing, pick pack, payment, call centre management and delivery solutions. Our customers In a market where price is an important consideration our ability to o¦er smart solutions for clients and excellent account management are becoming increasingly important factors in the decision-making process. During 2017 we renewed our contract with Specsavers which now uses our Mail, Parcels and Doordrop Media services. We built on our core DSA Business Mail service with renewed contracts with long standing clients Santander, Liverpool Victoria, Sainsbury’s Supermarkets, BBC TV Licensing and Land’s End. We also renewed other high-profile customer contracts, BUPA; Bourne Leisure (owner of Butlin’s, Haven and Warner Hotels) and SAGA. As part of our growth and diversification strategy into Parcels and International services we expanded the range of services we provide for clients such as Express Gifts, Music Magpie and HomeServe and began trading with Better World Books, Bertrams and Photobox. Strong Account Management continues to get the highest rating in terms of satisfaction/ recommendation factors in our Annual Customer Survey. Our survey response rate is well above the average for a B2B survey and reflects a high degree of customer engagement. Our Employees In 2016 our Annual Employee Survey results were exceptional; we recorded a 92% response rate and 65% engagement level. This year we have achieved an even better response rate of 94% and an engagement score of 70% which is higher than the industry benchmark.
Investment and operational e¨ciency We have a comprehensive UK depot network with capacity to support our planned growth in Parcels, Doordrop Media, Fulfilment and International.
DEPOT KEY HIGHLIGHTS
6 REGIONALLY LOCATED DEPOTS PROVIDING DAILY HANDOVER TO ALL ROYAL MAIL CENTRES, TOGETHER WITH ACCESS TO OTHER PARTNER NETWORKS IN THE UK AND INTERNATIONALLY – PLUS 2 FULFILMENT CENTRES
DEPOTS OPERATE 24 HOURS A DAY, 6 DAYS PER WEEK, WITH 7 DAYS A WEEK IN PEAK PERIODS, OFFERING PROTECTION FROM E-COMMERCE SPIKES
ABILITY TO SORT UP TO 25M ITEMS PER DAY WITH 17 LETTER SORTERS AND 2 PACKET SORTERS
WHISTL CONSOLIDATED ITS NORTHERN DEPOTS AND OPENED A NEW SUPER DEPOT IN BOLTON, WHICH BECAME OPERATIONAL IN 2017 AND ADDS SIGNIFICANT CAPACITY AND OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY TO THE WHISTL NETWORK
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CEO Business Review | Whistl Annual Report 2017
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