Subscribe

Tag: eCommerce

Redefine Packaging Efficiency and Compact Footprint

Posted on by David Priestman

CMC Packaging Automation, a leading supplier of fully automated right-sized packaging solutions is thrilled to introduce the groundbreaking CMC CartonWrap DUO. This cutting-edge technology offers a single solution for packaging diversity: both boxes and corrugated envelopes, all on demand.

The CMC CartonWrap DUO was unveiled for the first time during CID24, CMC’s annual innovation day, where it garnered widespread acclaim for its ingenuity and practicality. Now, CMC is excited to showcase this game-changing innovation at the upcoming LogiMAT Exhibition in Stuttgart and at the Grand Opening of its Tech Center in Atlanta on March 12th.

This groundbreaking machine leverages SKUs dimensions and thickness to automatically package items in perfectly sized boxes or envelopes, using continuous roll-fed corrugated material at a speed of 900 packages per hour.

“We are incredibly proud to introduce the CartonWrap-DUO to the market,” said Francesco Ponti, CEO at CMC. “This innovative solution represents a significant step forward in packaging efficiency and sustainability. By offering both box and envelope options on demand, we are empowering businesses to optimize their operations while minimizing environmental impact.”

Capable of packaging diverse items like apparel, electronics, and books, this technology ensures secure delivery. Its unique feature covers a thickness range from 250 mm to an ultra-thin 1 mm, revolutionizing manual fulfillment with jiffy bags. The necessary corrugated is directly fed by the new CMC Wave Line, an inline cardboard coupler integrated into our packaging machines that produces robust corrugated material on demand, effectively reducing costs and streamlining stock management.

This disruptive concept harmoniously blends sustainability and efficiency, cutting corrugated material usage by up to 50% compared to existing tech and requiring up to 70% less glue. It even produces envelopes that qualify for lower postal charges, benefiting retailers and 3PL. CMC CartonWrap-DUO streamlines warehouse operations, addressing labor shortages by optimizing product flow without requiring manual intervention or multiple machines for different package types.

Enhancing the customer experience has always been a priority for CMC. The new CartonWrap-DUO ensures items are well-protected during transit with minimal packaging, reducing delivery mishaps and customer dissatisfaction.

Packaging designed for home delivery guarantees a successful first-time delivery, a crucial element in fostering a positive customer experience. Missed deliveries or damaged products frequently lead to inconvenience and frustration among customers, incurring costs for both businesses and customers alike. By reducing the frequency of these problems, businesses can cut expenses associated with extra delivery attempts and returns, while also averting customer dissatisfaction.

Optional customization with CMC Packvertizing creates engaging, branded, full colour printed packages that create a memorable customer experience. CMC CartonWrap DUO automated process ensures accuracy in measuring, cutting, and folding boxes, reducing the need for manual intervention. It accommodates a wide range of items, adapting to each unique product avoiding to stock different types/sizes of pre-glue packaging. By creating packages specifically sized for each item, it reduces the need for excess packaging material such as void fills, minimizing waste and optimizing shipping space.

It operates at high speed, capable of processing a significant number of packages per hour thus reducing delivery times and support scalability with extra shifts.

Luigi Russo, CMC General Manager commented “With the new CMC Cartonwrap DUO we are not simply making changes; we are revolutionizing e-commerce packaging. Our aim is to forge a sustainable and efficient future by merging sustainability and efficiency thereby reducing waste, costs, and enhancing the customer experience through right-sized packaging”.

Read more

Dutch 3PL Active Ants Signs Up To CMC’s Cartonwrap

 

Sub-2 Hour UK Rapid Paint Delivery

Posted on by David Priestman

Award-winning decorating merchant Dulux Decorator Centre has today announced its partnership with last-mile, on-demand delivery network Gophr, to expand its new Rapid, sub-2-hour, delivery service on paint, tools and accessories for its customers across the UK.

Dulux Decorator Centre operates in over 230 stores across the UK and online. It introduced its Rapid delivery offering in November 2022, and recently won a British Coatings Federation award for Customer Service. The Gophr partnership, one of several that the decorating merchant is announcing to grow its delivery choices for customers, will help expand the availability of sub-2 hour deliveries six days per week to almost three-quarters (71%) of its UK customer base. Additionally, a 90-minute turnaround will be available in city centres.

The new relationship falls under the remit of ‘Gophr Trades’ – a specialist delivery service provided by Gophr for the construction and DIY industries, as well as larger construction and related trade businesses. The rapid delivery options are a response from Dulux Decorator Centre to the ever-changing needs of tradespeople, who are increasingly recognising that same-day, express, delivery can save them both time on site and money on fuel.

Rapid Paint Delivery

Graham Smith, Strategic Account Director at Gophr, said: “The growing demand for our ‘Trades’ service is indicative of its quality and the value it can add for our partners and their customers. We would like to extend a very warm welcome to Dulux Decorator Centre and its customers as the latest to join our delivery network. We can’t wait to make their working lives easier with our swift and reliable deliveries.”

Guy Butterworth, Managing Director of Dulux Decorator Centre, added: “For us, customer satisfaction is key. Our Customers across the industry are putting increased value on efficiency, time, and convenience. And now more than ever, tradespeople are looking for a wide range of delivery options that work around their schedule – ordering online for collection and delivery to home or project locations is now just as important as visits to store. So we are very pleased to partner with Gophr to support us in expanding our new, and enhanced, Rapid delivery service to more of our customers nationwide, in addition to our multiple existing delivery and collection options”.

Read similar news:

New Batteries and Chargers Cut Emissions for Paint Manufacturer

 

Packaging Technologies on show at LogiMAT

Posted on by David Priestman

IMA Group, with its new ecommerce division, an innovator in efulfillment and intralogistics packaging solutions, announces its participation at LogiMAT 2024, one of the premier European events dedicated to the Intralogistics solutions and process management. The exhibition, to be held from 19th to 21st March 2024, brings together industry experts, innovators, and businesses from around the world to exchange ideas and explore the latest trends and technologies.

At LogiMAT, on stand 4C35, IMA E-COMMERCE will present its state-of-the-art technologies and industry innovations. First born of this new Division is the machine E-CO Flex: packaging equipment designed to streamline and accelerate the packaging process. The machine is a composed of two modules: a multi-size case erector and a height-reduction box closer. These modules can be combined to form an automated packaging station or remain as stand-alone equipment, accommodating countless plant configurations and needs.

E-CO Flex packaging process is easy: the machine automatically selects the best-fit to size box for the products to be packed, connecting to the customer’s WMS system. Once the most suitable case is identified, the blank is automatically picked from the magazine, erected and the box’s bottom is then taped using water-activated tape. The result is a pre-assembled container presented to the operator, who simply inserts the items to be shipped and secures them with the required amount of dunnage. The operator reinserts the open-faced case back into the machine where the remaining void is measured: if necessary, the E-CO Flex is capable of automatically reduce the height of the box and then close it, adapting the flaps folding to the new case dimensions.

Automated packaging solutions for packaging with right-sizing capabilities like the E-CO Flex enable e-tailers to consolidate multiple stations into a single unit, improving the productivity and ensuring a safe transition from weight-based pricing to dimensional (DIM) weight thanks to the reduction of the cubic footage of cases to the minimum, significantly reducing material usage by using less corrugate and often eliminating the need for void fill. E-CO Flex is a modular solution designed fit in any kind of plant, either in greenfields or brownfields, adapting to the fast-changing needs of logistics flows. The box closing module will be present on show: let our experts guide you through its multiple features.

Also, virtually available at LogiMAT is the SealMatic: the NEW automatic case sealer of the IMA E-COMMERCE Series. This equipment integrates the range of solutions that IMA is offering to e-tailers. The machine is designed to automatically close and seal FEFCO 201 cases at high speed, and it’s capable to process an extensive range of case sizes adjusting its mechanical movements according to dimensions of the incoming box. The boxes, already filled with products and with top flaps open, are directed to SealMatic by a conveyor. The machine is capable of automatically fold the top flaps and then sealing the top and bottom of the case with tape. SealMatic is equipped with sustainable water-activated tape technology, sealing up to 20 boxes per minute with no need for operator intervention. In case a SIOC (Ships In Own Container) case is recognized, the machine can bypass it without taping. Several additional features can be equipped on the machine, such as the application of hazardous materials (hazmat) labels, print & apply of shipping labels, quality inspection smart cameras to verify correct flap folding, taping application and tape leg length.

Investment Pays Off, Calmest Peak for 3PL

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Specialist 3PL fulfilment provider Europa Warehouse has reported a 45 per cent increase in total orders picked in December 2023* across its 3PL sites.

Despite this increase, its facilities in Birmingham, Corby, and Dartford – which offer over one million sq. ft combined of dedicated warehouse and logistics space – operated without the usual stress and pressure associated with “peak”.

Notwithstanding continued economic challenges, there was a rise in consumer spending across the period which, supported by figures from Retail Economics, accounted for £202bn worth of global sales online and a 3.7 per cent increase in the UK.

While sales during the 2023 peak season in the UK might be less pronounced in comparison to previous years, the increase in order volumes still puts a huge pressure on 3PL services. Due to Europa’s £70m investment in its logistics operations over recent years, including £11m in shared user automation this peak period was the most efficient of any recent years’ peaks.

Dionne Redpath (pictured), Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Head of Warehouse at Europa Worldwide Group said: “Shopping habits are ever evolving, but we have invested heavily to alleviate the strain on our e-commerce, retail and wholesale customers. As well as investing in new equipment and processes and having restructured in recent months we’ve augmented our approach with customer and consumer experience at heart. Our focus has been to enable customers to meet or exceed their sales targets, allowing them to maximise revenues whilst ensuring exceptionally high levels of quality and satisfaction.”

To make it easier for customers to scale up and achieve seamless fulfilment, Europa Warehouse identified the importance of implementing strategies to drive innovation in order fulfilment.

“We appreciate that our customers need to cost-effectively scale up and down at pace, while delivering an efficient service for their customers. Our overarching objective is to deliver a peak which doesn’t feel like peak at all. During seasonal peaks, e-commerce and retail brands face upsetting their own status quo: with the significant upturn in sales activity creating volatility and complexity resulting in what can be an inefficient, often-chaotic order fulfilment process. It’s the time of year businesses are more likely to experience costly mispicks, delays to dispatch and higher than normal return rates.”

Europa Warehouse is the 3PL division of Europa Worldwide Group, and one of only a few operators in the UK offering a shared-user automated picking system. Designed for products that are able to be stored in totes, which Europa refer to as ‘toteable’, the system is ideal for clients who operate with a large SKU range and a complex, volatile order profile, often requiring operations to dramatically scale up and down within a short period of time.

Redpath explains: “With robust quality control processes to prevent picking errors, thus reducing cost, a shared-user system can be quickly scaled up or down to meet fluctuating demand. In turn, this allows for accurate financial modelling because of the high level of predictability. For peak planning, this is crucial to ensure a seamless supply chain from start to finish whilst not blowing budgets.”

Calmest Peak for 3PL
Calmest Peak for 3PL

In 2023, Europa’s portfolio of warehouses picked 78.8 million units through its automated and manual fulfilment operations – regularly scaling up to 280,000 individual picks in a 24 hour period. Shared-user automation contributed towards this, allowing for regular scaling from 40 to 100,000 picks from one day to the next. The ability to scale in this way within automation is what makes it such a cost-effective solution. The ability to scale in a similar way in a manual environment is far more complex, requiring significantly more labour at a time of year when labour is at a premium. In the automated environment, those headaches simply don’t exist.

The combination of Europa’s most recent investment in its systems and automated fulfilment technology and processes allows e-commerce brands to optimise resources, simplify operational models and capitalise on the sales and growth opportunities afforded by the peak season.

Demand for Logistics Space over Next 5 Years

Posted on by Keith McKinley

The UK could need more than 112 million sq ft of new industrial and logistics floorspace, the area of more than 1,700 football pitches, over the next five years, according to the latest calculations from global property adviser Knight Frank based on current capacity utilisation rates.

The additional demand is linked to the UK’s growing population and our increasing dependence on distribution and manufacturing hubs, though the long-term trend in manufacturing toward high-value sectors, as well as increased automation in the manufacturing and distribution sectors, could ease pressure on the UK’s industrial and logistics stock.

Population growth and urbanisation:

Oxford economics forecasts the number of dwellings in the UK to rise by 958,640 over the next five years. London is expected to see the strongest growth (6.7% vs current stock), followed by the South East region. According to Knight Frank’s latest Future Gazing report, this growth will result in a high volume of additional delivery addresses that need to be serviced by logistics facilities.

Growing urban populations will also place greater pressure on industrial and logistics land in UK towns and cities. By 2033, 85.6% of the UK population is expected to be urban, compared to 84.5% today and 82.1% ten years ago. The UK’s ongoing shift toward city living will generate increased demand for urban industrial and logistics space in the coming years.

The changing nature of retail:

The way we work, shop and spend our leisure time are further increasing and changing the nature of UK industrial and logistics demand. Technology and digitalisation, as well as many consumers’ preference for online shopping and faster delivery times, will see online retail penetration rates increase from 26.6% to 29.1% by 2028. Growth in online retail sales and the associated demand for business-to-consumer deliveries is a major contributor to demand for distribution and fulfilment hubs. Knight Frank anticipates that an additional 37 million sq ft of logistics space is required just to service the growth of e-commerce over the next five years.

Physical and omnichannel retailers are also increasingly reliant on industrial and logistics properties to fulfil click-and-collect orders and returns. Physical retail, which requires approximately 1/3 of the warehouse space as e-commerce, is expected to drive 4.7 million sq ft of new requirements over the next five years as total retail sales volumes rise.

Manufacturing and services:

Manufacturing output, which has risen 11.5% in the past ten years and is projected to increase by an additional 4.3% by 2028, will drive demand for an additional 33.8 million sq ft of logistics space based on current capacity utilisation rates. A push to near-shoring and re-shoring of supply chains, partly in response to successive geopolitical and macroeconomic shocks over the past decade, also has the potential to spur manufacturing output. However, the shift toward high-value manufacturing sectors such as computer, electronic and optical products, will raise capacity utilisation rates, meaning additional requirements – calculated by reference to current utilisation rates – may not be as high.

The service sector, which accounts for 16% of occupied industrial floorspace, has become an increasingly prominent category of logistics occupier in urban industrial markets, with demand from catering, cleaning, vehicle maintenance and media production companies unable to be satisfied by the limited stock of well-located, cost-effective city-centre commercial premises. The service sector, which already dominates the UK economy and accounted for 81% of all UK commercial output in 2022, is forecast to see strong growth over the next five years. Output is expected to rise nationwide by 6.7% by 2028, requiring 36.5 million sq ft of new industrial and logistics space.

Current undersupply:

With the growth of the remaining segments of the industrial and logistics occupational market closely tied to the growth of the retail, service and manufacturing sectors, this portion of the market is likely to see similar rates of growth in the coming years. All of these factors combine to increase the projected amount of industrial and logistics floorspace required per dwelling in the UK, from 109 sq ft currently to 111 sq ft per dwelling by 2028.

However, surging demand for logistics space has coupled with constrained supply of new space over the past ten years, increasing rents and straining the availability of existing stock. Since 2013, occupied industrial floorspace has risen by 17%, precipitating a drop in vacancy rates from 9.2% to 5.2% over the same period. Market rents have risen 63% on average across the UK over that timeframe, while prime rents (units over 50,000 sq ft) have almost doubled (+93%).

Charles Binks, Head of Logistics & Industrial Agency at Knight Frank, commented: “It is clear that the projected growth of the UK’s population will necessitate the delivery of new industrial and logistics space, particularly when one considers the near record-low vacancy rates and level of availability of existing stock. However, assessing the forecast rate of population growth alone fails to account for the impact of our shifting lifestyles, consumption habits and economic activity on demand for industrial and logistics floorspace across the UK, which when taken together demonstrate the growing dependence of each household on well-located manufacturing, distribution and service hubs.”

Claire Williams, Head of UK and European Industrial Research at Knight Frank, added: “Where we live, how much we earn, how we shop, what we spend our money on and how we spend our leisure time are all driving changes in our requirements of the industrial and logistics sector. By exploring the changing nature of demand from the perspective of the household, our analysis aims to bring into focus the diverse nature of demand and better understand how requirements in terms of the uses, locations and facilities may change going forward.”

Wellness Company Partners with Fulfilment Hub

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Cambridge Nutraceuticals has joined forces with leading Bristol fulfilment company Huboo to help meet the growing consumer demand for its wide array of health and wellness supplements.

Founded over 10 years ago, Cambridge Nutraceuticals’ mission is to help people live longer, healthier lives through scientifically proven health supplements. The wellness brand has enjoyed rapid growth over the past decade – particularly post-Covid when consumer demand for health-boosting products skyrocketed.

As the bulk of its business is direct-to-consumer sales via its website, Cambridge Nutraceuticals has partnered with Huboo to support all of its fulfilment needs – a journey which has led to over 40% growth and helped Cambridge Nutraceuticals on its path to become one of the UK’s most trusted wellness brands.

Based in Bristol, Huboo provides multi-channel fulfilment and storage services for more than 1,500 businesses across the UK, Europe and the US. It is the pioneer of the ‘hub-based’ warehousing model – a unique human-centric system focused on ‘hubs’ – essentially micro-warehouses – that are run by small teams who participate in all aspects of the fulfilment process to make it more streamlined and efficient.

Huboo has supported Cambridge Nutraceuticals by facilitating quick and accurate product deliveries for its fast-growing customer base. And with over 85% of its customers ordering on a monthly subscription basis, partnering with Huboo has meant the business has been able to seamlessly manage regular, repeat orders – ensuring deliveries are punctual and tie in with when a previous order is due to run out.

Matt Keys, CEO at Cambridge Nutraceuticals, said: “With Huboo’s technology and logistics infrastructure on our side, we’ve been able to consistently focus our attention towards scaling the business – in the UK initially, but now increasingly overseas too.

“Huboo helps us ensure our subscribers’ deliveries arrive on time, minimising the build-up of a surplus. We also benefit from batch management, stock controls, real-time insights, inventory planning and quality assurance measures so that our supplements don’t exceed best before dates. Huboo is also able to provide letterbox friendly packaging, so customers don’t miss a delivery and have to take a trip to the post office.”

As a result of Huboo’s fulfilment support, Cambridge Nutraceuticals has been able to dedicate more focus to forging ahead with its growth plans, branching into new territories, and adding to an existing presence in the Middle East, Australia and Sri Lanka. It is also looking to further expand its innovative, patented version of lycopene, a natural food compound known to lower the risk of heart disease – called LactoLycopene – across multiple product ranges, to further bolster its growth prospects.

Paul Dodd, co-founder and CIO at Huboo added: “At Huboo, adapting to our customers’ growing fulfilment needs is crucial in helping them evolve as a business. Cambridge Nutraceuticals offers both subscription-based models, as well as traditional eCommerce sales – so having a fulfilment partner that can effectively manage both these order streams, without any glitches, is paramount. It’s been such a brilliant experience supporting Cambridge Nutraceuticals on their growth journey – we’ve strived to ensure their fulfilment needs are handled seamlessly by harnessing cutting-edge technology, and a passionate team, to enable a productive fulfilment process.”

Increase Visibility and Automation Across Ecommerce

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Linnworks, an inventory management system (IMS), order management system (OMS) and warehouse management system (WMS) solutions provider and recently announced Connected CommerceOps platform, is pleased to announce its partnership with Virtualstock, Europe’s largest dropshipping and curated marketplace SaaS (software-as-a-service) platform. As a result of this integration, Virtualstock users can automate their connection to key suppliers in their ecosystem to synchronise inventory and order routing details.

Linnworks connects thousands of small, medium sized retailers with over 100 selling channels including global marketplaces, D2C platforms and emerging selling channels. Virtualstock is one of those key channels, offering product placement into the top 10 UK Retailers including John Lewis, Sainsbury’s Argos, Robert Dyas, B&Q, Currys, Screwfix, Ryman and Toolstation. By pairing these two organisations both the marketplace entity (retailer) and the seller (supplier) can enjoy full transparency and visibility with fully automated transfer of critical data upstream and downstream.

The Virtualstock platform is cloud-based and provides a frictionless connection into the retailers ensuring visibility across their supply chain – including stock availability, order status and delivery status. With Linnworks alongside, this visibility extends into the supplier network improving the ability to connect, sell and fulfil orders seamlessly for all parties. Key deliverables for the supplier community include; de-risking operations by automating connectivity; saving time and money through real-time centralised visibility, and ensuring compliance with channel Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

The integration between Virtualstock and Linnworks means that order and stock data will now flow seamlessly back and forth without the need for any manual interaction.

Other key functions of the partnership include:

• Inventory Updates – Linnworks can automatically send changes in stock levels to the channel
• Order Download – Channel orders can be automatically downloaded into Linnworks’ platform, allowing retailers to reserve available stock and avoid overselling
• Inventory Mapping – Existing and new channel listings can be linked to Linnworks inventory items for stock level and price updates
• Location Mapping – Orders can be downloaded and inventory updates sent from specific locations
• Order Despatch – Orders on the channel can be marked as shipped and provided with the tracking number and shipping service name via Linnworks.

Chris Timmer, Linnworks commented, “Automating a connection to market leading retailers is no longer a luxury, it is a must. Therefore, the partnership with Virtualstock couldn’t have come at a better time. In order to achieve smoother retail experiences for all, Linnworks and Virtualstock can now work together in order to meet ever-evolving customer demands. With this partnership, we are demonstrating our commitment to helping businesses conquer the complexities of multichannel selling and achieve new levels of productivity and profitability.”

Ed Bradley (pictured), Virtualstock concluded, “We are very excited to announce our partnership with Linnworks. Connecting thousands of vendors to the Virtualstock platform, not only enhances the control and visibility of consumer orders but offers choice to our retail clients and routes to market for brands and suppliers. With Linnworks’ extensive reach across a multitude of sales channels, it was the obvious choice to create the most powerful supply-and-demand network in the market.”

Fulfillment Experience Insights Dashboard

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Manhattan Associates (NASDAQ: MANH), a global leader in supply chain commerce, today launched the ‘Fulfillment Experience Insights’ dashboard to give retailers a real-time assessment of how their omnichannel fulfilment performance stacks up against the industry. Fulfillment Experience Insights provides continuous benchmarking of fulfillment performance, proactively informing retailers how they compare against a large pool of peers and competitors. This realtime ‘actuals versus actuals’ comparison avoids the inherent latency of most benchmarking tools.

Included in Manhattan Active® Omni, this new capability gives retailers a single view of digital order fulfillment KPIs like store pickup conversion, shorts and abandonment, time to fulfill and more. Retailers can evaluate, measure and adjust their supply chain execution strategies using aggregated and anonymized data from the Manhattan Active cloud ecosystem. This unique analytical tool, which includes the ability to quickly pivot between various timeframes, provides detailed insight into the experience a retailer is delivering for their customers.

“Introducing cutting-edge innovation like the Fulfillment Experience Insights Dashboard is one of the reasons Manhattan continues to be ranked the only leader in omnichannel order management,” said Amy Tennent, senior director of Product Management at Manhattan. “For the first time ever, retail operations teams can see exactly how they are performing against the rest of the industry. This is a complete game changer, because they now have a starting point to begin creating more efficiency and improving fulfillment performance for their customers.”

Manhattan is uniquely capable of developing this solution because hundreds of the world’s top brands use its fulfillment execution tools to process millions of orders every week. Drawing upon this extensive knowledge and experience, the company has skillfully identified the key performance indicators crucial to fostering growth and maximizing revenue.

Last year, Manhattan launched the first-of-its-kind Unified Commerce Benchmark which measured 286 customer experience capabilities across four segments. Of these four primary segments, ‘Promising & Fulfillment’ returned the lowest scores by a significant margin. Manhattan’s new dashboard gives retailers their real-time performance in this critical area, helping them become Unified Commerce leaders.

 

Logistics Provider Merges with eCommerce Arm

Posted on by Keith McKinley

DG International has announced that it will merge with its eCommerce specialist arm, Pro Carrier, from this month. DG International will cease to operate under its separate brand and will move forward under the Pro Carrier name.

The integration of the two brands will streamline operations, bringing DG International’s expertise in global transportation options across land, sea and air and Pro Carrier’s eCommerce offering under one umbrella.

The company’s innovative Horizon platform, an easy-to-navigate, user-friendly system that shows the status of a customer’s shipment every step of the way, was instrumental in the organisation’s decision to merge under the Pro Carrier brand. The rebrand will allow customers to view the exact status of their deliveries in real-time across both freight and parcel shipments, under one login.

Ryan Lucas, CEO of Pro Carrier, said: “The synergy between the two brands made it clear that merging should be the next step in our growth plan. We are excited about the opportunities ahead as we operate under the Pro Carrier name, expanding its services with our reliable and competitive international freight offering. The fantastic growth we have experienced across both brands in 2023 has led to a renewed vigour to offer a more streamlined service to our customers, so we can maintain our reputation for excellence.”

During the rebrand, existing contracts, services, and relationships with the company will continue unaffected, the only key difference for DG International customers and suppliers being the brand name being phased out to operate under Pro Carrier.

Pro Carrier’s easy-to-navigate website will be refreshed with an updated look and feel, to include DG International’s offering. The current website for DG International will become inactive, with all content and mechanisms transferred. Likewise, the current social media channels for DG International will no longer be updated, with all future news about the company’s freight offering coming from Pro Carrier’s LinkedIn channel.

Peak Christmas Panic on 22nd December

Posted on by David Priestman

As we hurtle towards Christmas, days left for grocery shopping, gift buying and travel are disappearing fast, with panic slowly building amongst consumers. According to analysis from delivery business Gophr, peak Christmas panic will grip the nation on the Friday before Christmas (22nd).

Coined ‘National Day of Christmas Panic’, the 22nd December will represent the height of Christmas chaos and panic due to:

• As of 4th December, there was no availability for the most popular Christmas delivery slots, namely the 22nd and 23rd December for several major supermarkets including Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Ocado, ASDA and Morrisons.
• There being limited availability on train travel out of London, with, for example, only a single train journey open for advanced ticket purchase from London-Nottingham on 22nd December as of 4th December
• A repeat of last year’s busiest day on the roads (Friday 23rd December 2022) for pre-Christmas traffic, so called “Frantic Friday”, with car journeys expected to reach almost 4m on 22nd December

Additionally, Gophr is expecting an 80% increase (vs daily average) in the number of delivery journeys it will make on Thursday 21st December, marking the last realistic day for delivery before Christmas day. Those who’ve left it too late will have to brave the shops on Super Saturday (23rd December) in order to get those last-minute Christmas gifts in person.

Seb Robert, founder and CEO of Gophr commented: “Every year we say to ourselves that we won’t leave our Christmas prep to the last minute, and yet every year there is that sense of panic. It comes as no surprise that as a nation we reach ‘peak Christmas panic’ on the last Friday before Christmas, with delivery slots for groceries being at a premium, travel routes at their busiest and delivery options dwindling before the big day.”

To pinpoint the ‘National Day of Panic’ for 2023, Gophr number crunchers analysed; the delivery slots for all major UK supermarkets, train timetables for all major train routes out of London in December, historic RAC and AA data for travel patterns during the festive period, as well as Gophr’s proprietary delivery data.

Christmas Panic
Christmas Panic

Robert concluded: “A broader choice of delivery options can of course mitigate some of this panic, with many consumers looking for faster options to ensure that they get their products in good time, leaving more time for merriment and less time for stressful shopping and travel.”

Subscribe

Get notified about New Episodes of our Podcast, New Magazine Issues and stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter.