Nisa-Today’s has outraged retailers after its flagship new ambient distribution centre in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, failed them on its first day.
Major chains supplied by the centre claimed they received none of their scheduled deliveries in the initial 24 hours of the kingsize 625,000 sq ft depot opening for business.
One retailer supplied by Nisa-Today’s said he had received an e-mail from head office saying things had gone smoothly, only to discover that he and retailers in the network had received deliveries a day late.
He said the next delivery went smoothly. “But our costs went up, because we brought in extra staff to cope with the initial delivery.”
Retailers also said Nisa-Today’s had changed pledges that it would execute drops every three days from the warehouse, switching the timescale to four days. And several reported ongoing out of stocks problems with the depot’s deliveries.
Nisa-Today’s group MD John Schofield said: “The warehouse product migration was the largest operational move in Nisa-Today’s history, with more than 1.5 million cases of stock being transferred to the new depot.
“With a logistical operation of this size, some issues are inevitable and we have had some initial problems, which have affected service levels. The business has been working flat out to resolve the problems and we are close to resuming our usual high level of service.”
Meanwhile, Nisa-Today’s has extended its relationship with Bibby Distribution for five years, allowing the logistics provider to operate within the Scunthorpe site, based at Foxhills Industrial Park. The two companies have worked together for 20 years.
Rod Addy