Flexible collaboration between DS Smith and The Works

DS Smith’s UK e-commerce division has partnered with The Works Stores Ltd to create a corrugated storage solution for its new warehouse facility.

A staple on the UK high street, The Works specialises in books, toys, gifts, stationery and arts & crafts, all at discounted prices. Reaching customers of all ages both in store and online, the company has steadily grown and now sells over one million products every week, and serves over 22.5 million customers annually.

As a result of this expansion, The Works moved to a new storage and distribution facility in February 2017 to accommodate its extensive product base. With 18,000 SKUs to sort and store, the leading entertainment retailer required a flexible storage solution that would provide the best possible operational efficiency.

Working in partnership with The Works, DS Smith’s specialist e-commerce team designed a corrugated pick bin that allowed flexibility, strength, ease of assembly and durability. The made-to-measure pick bin also enables The Works to use every space within the warehouse, to guarantee high product visibility so the picking team can work efficiently, and to minimise any damage during the storing process.

Peter Jowitt, Interim Head of Distribution at The Works, commented: 

One of the biggest challenges we’ve faced is finding the most efficient and reliable solution for our storage warehouse, particularly as our range of products is so varied and growing all the time. For our new facility, we needed a product which had in-built flexibility and could adapt according to the size of both the products and storage space available.

Sara Blount, Sales Manager, e-commerce at DS Smith UK, said: “Having collaborated with The Works stores for a number of years, we have a strong understanding of the business, its e-commerce pack and pick operation layout and most importantly for this project, its operational limitations. Using this insight, we were able to evaluate the space available and take on board the needs of the packaging operatives and the business as a whole to find a flexible, best-fit solution for a business with unpresented UK growth, and we’ve designed, produced and delivered that.”