LORD OF LOGISTICS Paul Cross, general manager, logistics, has 30 years' experience at Jacksons Family Stores, a 60-strong Humberside c-store chain, on which to draw extensively for United Norwest. Since joining just over a year ago, he has been analysing the distribution structures at the society. His first concern was to shift the fleet ­ based at the society's depot in Talke, near Stoke-on-Trent ­ from its dependence on large, rigid vehicles to a more versatile mix of trailers for the depot's 12 loading bays. These vehicles are completely interchangeable with 24 tractor units, allowing the depot to operate efficiently. "We've got two 7.5t box vans for locations where that is the legal limit, as well as some 24ft trailers," Cross says. "A new batch of 35ft trailers arrived in April and we have some 40ft trailers for the larger stores." In this context, larger means 23,000 sq ft. But it's not the size that keeps Cross awake at nights, more the complexities of the job. Since c-stores dominate the mix of stores, the schedules are somewhat different. "Most stores will have two deliveries a week," Cross says. "But given the locations, we can deliver only between 7am and 7pm in mostly residential areas. "A parked truck is the most expensive wasting asset you can have." At present, Cross is analysing a matrix of sales data. A corridor runs the length of the warehouse, parallel to the loading bays and is used as a breakwater between the fast and slow moving lines, with the 700 fastest lines nearest to the docked trailers. There is a single goods-in bay, which handles 850 pallets of product a day. Cross is looking forward to putting a second bay in place to take some of the pressure off the goods in bottleneck. He has just returned from a trip to the United States to evaluate warehousing software, which is high on the shopping list. "If you average it out, we probably handle each case about nine times and we know we can do better," Cross comments. Part of the solution begins in store, which is laid out to be merchandised in terms of what comes off the roll cage. "We don't want the buyers to get a 48-can case of red salmon ­ we would rather have four 12-can trays," Cross says. "Then you can merchandise all 12 rather than put 36 loose cans back in the storeroom to get damaged." C-store merchandising differs from superstore stacking in other respects. "Take the top 300 lines out of 5,500, which probably make up 40% of our sales," says Cross. "Ask a manager how much he sells of the 300th line and he'll talk the figure up. In reality, a £20,000 a week c-store sells no more than four units of its 300th fastest line." Customer psychology comes into play, however. Cross has watched a single jar of branded mint sauce sit on shelf for two hours while rival lines sold steadily. "The shoppers thought there was something wrong with it because it was the last one," he says. "But we filled the gap and six went in half an hour." With the introduction of EPoS driven ordering, the re-order should be triggered as a function of the number of facings. A line with three facings, for example, should be re-ordered at a stock level of four or more because, once a gap appears, the last two units are unlikely to sell. Although Talke is almost all ambient, United Norwest has invested £1.5m in a chill chamber for fresh produce. To encourage stores to make the most of their fresh produce displays, Cross prefers to see frequent, small deliveries. Spirits is another sector with an ability to tie up vast sums of money and sell slowly. "We're moving to single picking so stores get a bottle a month to top up, rather than a case of 12 at Christmas that isn't sold until Bonfire Night," says Cross. If you study a map of the United Norwest stores, you will find that the Talke distribution depot is nearer the southern extremity than the centre of the area the society covers. Point this out to Cross and he grins. "What a wonderful opportunity to expand south," he argues. "The only thing is, we're running short of suitable c-store chains to buy," he laughs {{Z SUPPLEMENTS }}