Leading independent on-trade drinks distributor improves order fulfilment accuracy

RedPrairie Corporation, a productivity solutions provider, has successfully implemented a voice-pick warehouse management solution (WMS) at Matthew Clark's Runcorn depot that has resulted in immediate operational improvements and overall costs savings.

Matthew Clark is the UK's leading independent on-trade drinks distributor. Operating from a Bristol-based head office, with 10 major depots, the company provides a next day delivery service to over 14,000 on-trade outlets, shipping around 21 million nine-litre cases of drink annually.



A typical Matthew Clark depot stocks some 2,200 SKUs (stock keeping units), which are delivered to 300 outlets a day using its own fleet of vehicles. With increasing volume, achieved through organic growth, its paper-based warehouse operation was manually intensive. The company also sought to move from a manual pallet building process to an automated solution, enabling it to take account of product types when assembling orders.

John Hitchmough, Matthew Clark's Runcorn Depot Manager responsible for delivering the new solution, said: "From the moment we went live with the new voice-picking WMS we have successfully delivered every order and order line, without any interruption to warehouse operations.

"From the very first voice shift, we have completed picking earlier than we could have achieved with the previous system. We've improved stock accuracy, reduced stock losses and staff training takes considerably less time. We look forward to rolling out the solution across the rest of our network."

Martin Hiscox, Managing Director and President International, RedPrairie, commented: "RedPrairie's warehouse management solution provides the operational efficiencies that Matthew Clark required to maintain its market-leading reputation for service. We look forward to helping them achieve the same benefits at their other sites."