Europa Warehouse is a division of Europa Worldwide Group. Its sites in Birmingham, Corby and Dartford provide over a million sq. ft. of dedicated warehouse and logistics space. The company’s Corby facility opened in 2020, is HMRC bonded and houses an £11m shared user automation system, offering value-added order fulfilment services.
Dionne Redpath, Group Chief Operating Officer and Head of Warehouse Division at Europa Warehouse speaks to Warehouse & Logistics News.
What are your best-known products/solutions/services?
We are best known for our collaborative approach that we develop with our customers to identify the most cost effective, efficient, and flexible logistic solutions. Offering both manual and automated order fulfilment, alongside continued and sustained investment in technology, we are always thinking of new ways to make solutions even better for our customers, at a fair price, and always to the very highest standard of service.
Which industry sectors are your customers in, and which ones are growing the fastest?
We support a wide range of B2B and B2C operations, across multiple sectors, including fashion, skin care, cosmetics, alcoholic beverages, nutrition, and electricals, to despatch products to customers and businesses accurately…and on time.
As consumers’ expectations grow, demanding greater convenience, timely delivery of goods, and all at the very best price, it continues to put greater pressure across every aspect of the supply chain. We would consider our beverage sector, including craft beverages, where we have seen the most significant growth.
What are your most recent product innovations?
Our most recent innovation has been in our £11m shared user automation system, which was installed in 2021. This new automation allows teams at Europa Warehouse to provide a streamlined service, delivering numerous benefits to our customers, and their customers. The system can flex from (for example) 40,000 to 100,000 units picked within a 24-hour period with a 100% pick accuracy.
What are the major trends and developments affecting your category and your customers, and how are you responding?
We are seeing advancements in the eCommerce, retail and wholesale markets being driven by consumers’ appetite for convenience, speedy delivery of goods at a highly competitive price. At Europa Warehouse, we embrace this challenge by creating new efficiencies, developing innovative technologies, and lowering costs whilst maintaining a service delivery that is both accurate and on-time, which helps our customers strengthen their brand, and their business.
Can you tell us about any recent customer contracts and how you helped the customer meet their challenges?
Our Corby team has been responsible for the manual picking, packing, and distribution of Craft Gin Club subscription boxes dispatching these orders to more than 100,000 subscribers across the nation. It’s our job to adapt to demand and improve operations, whilst maintaining a solid entrepreneurial team ethos. It’s partnerships like these which improves efficiencies, achieves maximum outputs, and improves customer experiences.
What’s the latest news from your company?
We recently introduced a new pallet storage price, specifically for customers looking for more than 3,000 pallet storage options. Our unique £1.49 per pallet per week rate is available exclusively from our £60m 3PL facility in Corby.
This cost is supported by a broader offer, which includes compelling rates for both manual and automated fulfilment services and customer service support.
Can you tell us about any areas where you’re currently making technical advances e.g. safety, sustainability, environment?
All orders, whether manually picked or automated, are subject to rigorous quality checks to ensure that dispatched products are accurate and that customers’ stock levels are measured in real-time.
Using predictive analytics for accuracy, we can identify creative routes to market, like the development of mystery boxes or e-shops for products that would ordinarily remain unsold.
In addition to helping our customers reduce wasted stock levels, which contributes to lowering their environmental impact, we work collaboratively with Pledge, the leading greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions management platform for logistics. The Pledge platform allows our customers to track, measure, report and reduce their carbon footprint, offsetting residual emissions using verified carbon removal and offsetting projects.
Are you investing in staff training and skills development?
Our investment to ensure that every team member here at Europa are provided with all the support they need to grow and develop their career is an ongoing commitment.
Over the past 12 months, we have introduced a new platform that encourages a culture of learning and development, across all teams, through interactive courses that meet the needs of individual learning styles.
Talking specifically about our warehouse division, Europa’s dedicated HR business partners work in close partnership with management teams across all three sites to identify, design, develop and deliver tailored courses throughout the year.
In addition, for those members of staff whose English is a second language, we provide free access to courses to help improve language skills to broaden further learning and development opportunities.
How does business in 2023 compare to previous years? What’s your strategy for succeeding in the current climate?
In the current economic climate, where prices are rising for our customers, our strategy is to be responsive, trustworthy and innovative to adjust effectively and efficiently to these ongoing challenges. Our desire to continually improve our value offer is one of the reasons why we have introduced our market-busting, low-cost pallet storage solution.
This low-cost offer does not mean a reduction in the quality of service, quite the opposite. The improvements and high investment in our warehouse facilities have enabled us to unlock value for our customers. From storage solutions that are designed to optimise every inch of space, to accurate stock management systems whereby our customers are only paying to store stock needed to fulfil their orders, guarantees that warehouse space is used efficiently at all times and that there is no ‘wasted’ space. All these efficiencies allow us to confidently offer customers looking for more than 3,000 ambient pallet storage solution at a fair rate of £1.49 per pallet, without compromising on quality.
Europa Warehouse
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