ACE Exports Ltd, a UK company that has been supplying a range of personal care, grocery and household products to retailers throughout the Caribbean Islands for over 25 years, has outsourced its supply chain process to Midlands-based DK Fufilment Ltd (DKF).
Under the terms of the two year agreement, DKF will be responsible for receiving palletised loads of goods from ACE Exports global suppliers and storing the stock at its 165,000 sq ft shared user facility in Coventry.
Orders will be picked and assembled in to containers for onward delivery to the Caribbean on a weekly basis and, at peak times, five container loads a week will be dispatched.
Prior to outsourcing to DKF, ACE Exports had operated three warehouse units in the Black Country region but, by appointing DKF as its logistics partner, ACE has been able to remove this costly fixed overhead from its business model.
One of the attractions of outsourcing to a third party supply chain solutions specialist like DKF is the flexibility it brings to our business, says ACE Exports Consultant, Steve Tandy.
He adds: Our Black Country warehouses had to be staffed to a level appropriate to cope with our busiest periods and this meant that when things were less hectic we were paying for personnel that were under utilised. It was a fixed cost that we wanted to lose and outsourcing has allowed us to do so.
DKF opened its Coventry facility in December 2015.
The site offers three storage chambers and features a combination of wide and narrow aisle pallet racking as well as small parts storage bays and a dedicated pick, pack and re-work area as well as modern office accommodation.
The building is served by a new fleet of Toyota materials handling equipment, including counterbalanced and reach trucks, very narrow aisle trucks and man-aloft high level order pickers.
DKF Fulfilment Ltds managing director, Mark Elward, commented: We are delighted ACE Exports chose to award this business to DKF. DKF will bring industry leading standards and operational excellence to the contract and we look forward to a successful partnership.
20th April 2016
