Ethel Austin started as a family business in 1934 when Ethel and George Austin opened a wool shop in Liverpool. Today, the company specialises in high quality clothing at low prices, selling more than 10,000 different product lines in its 200 stores across the UK. Turnover in 1999 reached £110 million. A store expansion programme will double the number of company stores over the next ten years.
Currently all the stores are supplied from a single distribution centre in Liverpool. Each week it receives approximately 15, 000 cartons of stock, and despatches 20-25,000 sacks of clothing to stores using its own truck fleet.
Ethel Austin moved to their current premises from Aintree in 1986, and originally had just a couple of bays of Redirack in the bulk storage area. Now the distribution centre, which has a floor area of 230,000 sq. ft, is divided equally between storage, picking and despatch and is fully equipped with Redirack.
David Hughes is the company's Distribution Manager: "Redirack is a good quality product, and we have many years experience of using it. When we last extended our storage and picking systems, we felt confident that Redirack would do a good job for us."
The last extension to the Ethel Austin distribution centre added a narrow aisle storage system, suspended floor and shelving area. With their stores reducing their stockholding, the Liverpool DC had to increase its storage capacity, the company taking the opportunity of replacing the shelving in its picking area at the same time.
A narrow aisle racking system was installed with a suspended floor above giving access to the shelving. Within an area approximately forty-five metres square there are fifteen double runs and two single runs of adjustable pallet racking arranged in a narrow aisle configuration. The racking uprights extend to nearly seven metres with the suspended floor at 3.7 metres. Above the floor the racking is boarded at five different levels to produce a shelving system for order picking. Access to the upper floor is via two staircases with a conveyor system aiding the delivery and removal of stock.
In total the distribution centre has 7,500 pallet positions and 18,000 pick locations, with plans to increase the picking area by an extra 300-400 positions.
"Compatibility of the racking systems is important to us." Explains David Hughes. "So having committed to Redirack in the beginning, we were keen to continue using them. Having said that they are easy to deal with and respond to our requests promptly. They were also very helpful during the planning and initial design stage, although there was no guarantee that they would get the business."
Ethel Austin is successful in one of the most competitive retail markets in the world. They deliver more than 35 million items annually, most of them next-day. Trays used in the warehouse automatic picking system travel 55 miles a day to maintain the supply of garments to the stores. What would Ethel make of her business now?
