Background
Hornby is the UK’s leading model railway manufacturer and a household name amongst model railway enthusiasts. With its origins firmly rooted back to the beginnings of the twentieth century, Hornby has established a reputation as the industry benchmark for quality.
This carefully acquired reputation has partly arisen as a result of the excellent service Hornby provides to its extensive portfolio of customers. With a significant proportion of its customer base constituting high street and shopping centre retailers, a reliable and cost efficient carrier is crucial to ensure that its stock arrives at the stores on time, and in excellent condition.
The Situation
Having used another carrier for more than seven years, Hornby decided to change operator in 2006 after an in-depth review of the service and cost benefits of doing so. With service efficiency posing as the primary drive, cost was also a crucial consideration demanding that they implement a thorough review of the marketplace for the most competitive supplier.
The Service Solution
UK Mail was able to provide a solution to enable Hornby to meet its key objective of instigating cost savings - without compromising on quality of service.
UK Mail was able to provide a solution to enable Hornby to meet its key objective of instigating cost savings - without compromising on quality of service. In fact, UK Mail’s next day delivery solution offered an improvement on Hornby’s existing distribution service as well as providing enhanced flexibility and different service innovations.
In order to achieve this UK Mail implemented a whole new operational framework which merged both companies’ IT systems. As such, Hornby was able to utilise the full range of sophisticated service features available from UK Mail to ensure the far more efficient despatch of their consignments.
This included:
- Higher transparency of consignments’ journeys from point of collection to delivery by utilising UK Mail'’s full track and trace capabilities
- Flexible collection times and a high standard of service performance
- Full and comprehensive reporting tailored specifically to Hornby’s customers’ requirements (something Hornby had not been privvy to before)
- Ease of loading and a quick turn around to UK Mail locations for sortation and delivery by using a full stand trailer on a daily basis.
The Impact
It has been widely recognised within the business that these benefits have had a huge impact on Hornby’s commercial success as well as its reputation amongst its customers.
As a result of switching to UK Mail’s next day delivery solution, Hornby’s customers have been able to log online to track their parcels journey through the network. With full visibility of the distribution process now available, Hornby has reported increased levels of satisfaction amongst its own customers. In addition, the business’s own logistics management team are now also able to pinpoint and accumulate vital information needed for management controls and reporting.
Regular monthly meetings between Hornby and UK Mail have meant that existing systems are reviewed on a regular basis and that optimum working procedures using state of the art technology continue to be put in place.
The Future
Hornby and UK Mail continue to enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship. On an average month UK Mail can expect to deliver approximately 10,000 parcels for Hornby (although in the run up to Christmas last year this topped 17,000 parcels).
As Hornby’s inevitable expansion continues, including the recent purchase of Corgi, so too do its distribution requirements with UK Mail meeting and fulfilling its service obligations to the extremely high standards Hornby has come to expect of it.