14/05/2014 | Hardis Group
The chain is equipping itself with Hardis Group's Reflex WMS, in parallel with a project to mechanize its single warehouse located near Rennes, to cater to the growing volumes and maintain service quality.
Hardis Group, a digital services company and business software publisher, announces that DistriCenter, a retail chain selling textiles, footwear and childcare products, has selected Reflex WMS to manage all its logistics flows throughout its 151 stores and its e-commerce activity. This project was accompanied by the mechanization of its warehouse at Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier in the department of Ille-et-Vilaine, in Brittany.
DistriCenter: a fast-growing chain
A family company established in 1986 in the west of France, DistriCenter specializes in the retail distribution of clothes, shoes, childcare articles, household linen, and accessories. The chain is growing fast: it currently has 151 stores on the outskirts of medium-sized towns and 1,200 employees, and opens between five and ten new sales outlets every year. Since August 2013, DistriCenter has also had an e-commerce website.
Its logistics are managed from a single 20,000 m2 warehouse at Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier, Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany (near Rennes), which handles 1.5 million packages a year, with peaks that can reach as high as 12,000 packages a day when new collections arrive. Both the mechanization system and the warehouse management module of the ERP were nearing their limits in the face of ever increasing volumes. "We decided to change them so as to be able to handle up to 20,000 packages a day," explains Stéphanie Lucas, Head of Logistics with DistriCenter.
A complete overhaul of the logistics processes
For the mechanization, the chain chose Savoye conveyor belts. Among the eight warehouse management software publishers consulted, Hardis was the one chosen. DistriCenter's logistics management was attracted to Reflex WMS because of its wealth of functionalities and its ability to handle store and e-commerce flows simultaneously. "But it was also the support of Hardis' teams during the many changes we had to make to our logistical processes that really made the difference," says Stéphanie Lucas.
With the roll-out of Reflex WMS, scheduled for the fall of 2014, together with the implementation of the mechanization, DistriCenter is well on the way to being able to absorb the growth in its business while at the same time improving the reliability of its preparations, the quality of service provided to the stores, and also the working conditions of the warehouse teams. "By boosting the efficiency and reliability of our processes, we aim to transform our logistics into a real competitive advantage," concludes Stéphanie Lucas.