The National Trust is a leading English conservation organisation, caring for historic places and green spaces. Its retail and e-commerce operation supports this work, and needed a distribution footprint that could keep pace with growing online sales.
The National Trust wanted to expand its warehouse storage capacity, guided by careful consideration of the size, location and operating model for its future distribution footprint. The Supply Chain Consulting Group (SCCG) was engaged to confirm the existing warehouse and fulfilment site was in the right location and of sufficient size to handle current activity, including e-commerce, with spare capacity for future growth.
The National Trust needed to balance two competing pressures: growing e-commerce volumes that demanded more space and throughput, against the cost and disruption of relocating. SCCG’s brief was to establish whether the current site could still deliver the best transport and cost outcomes, or whether a move was justified.
SCCG’s supply chain and logistics consultants carried out a Centre of Gravity analysis to test whether transport savings were achievable while keeping the existing location. This was paired with a detailed review of the National Trust’s current warehouse and distribution operations to identify future requirements.
The findings were presented to the project team along with a recommended strategy for reducing costs relative to throughput across both the warehouse and distribution operations.
The chosen solution centred on implementing improved supply chain management within the existing facility. This freed up additional capacity at the current site, improved operational efficiency, increased product velocity, and enabled throughput to expand without the cost or disruption of relocating.
The Supply Chain Consulting Group Warehouse and Logistics team conducted a detailed review of our existing warehouse and distribution operations to identify our future requirements. The team’s strategy reduced costs relative to throughput throughout both our warehouse and distribution operations. — The National Trust
By combining Centre of Gravity analysis with a detailed operational review, SCCG helped the National Trust unlock more capacity and efficiency from its existing site, avoiding the cost and disruption of a relocation while preparing the operation for continued e-commerce growth. Talk to our warehouse optimisation consultants about getting more from your existing facility.