Year: 2002

BUSINESS EXPRESS , the delivery subsidiary of the Littlewoods Group (Littlewoods Stoics, Index Stores. Index Extra Catalogue and Littlewods Catalogues) was handling up to 400,000 parcels a day through the hub during the peak pre-Christmas period. The system is housed in a 39,000 sq m building within a large marshalling area. It handles both bulk products in callous and small parcelled items. At present, about 80 percent of the traffic is from Littlewoods and the remainder from third party clients of Business Express, which is contracted to provide delivery services for such major retailers and home shopping specialists as Boots, WH Smith On-Line, M&M Sports, the White Company, Lands End and Thorntons. Third patty contracts are Ofl course to grow rapidly. Mick Janicki, managing director of Business Express, predicts that these are scheduled to reach 40 percent of transactions within three years. Business Express ranks as one of the UK’s ‘big three’ home delivery specialists (alongside Consignia and White Arrow), though .Janicki says, “We do not strive to become the largest. The emphasis is on providing quality innovative services.”
There is full integration from the time an order is placed to its despatch to one of 33 distribution cent res for final delivery. Orders from Littlewoods customers are processed electronically from three call centres within seconds of confirmation and downloaded ((the appropriate warehouses for picking. The warehouse for textiles and clothing is a short distance from the sorting hub and is linked by a conveyor system which feeds directly into the centre. Other products and those from third-party clients of Busines.s Express are delivered by trailer.