Time for a change.

Birmingham-based InterCity Watches' provides branded watches and accessories such as jewellery, pens and calculators, to UK high street retailers. The company's clients include, Next, Oasis, Top Man, and Argos. In addition the company also supplies supermarkets, mail order houses and duty-free products to airlines. The company began trading 10 years ago and has grown consistently, with its turnover in 1999 exceeding £12 million.

In 1998, InterCity Watches decided that a new storage system was required in their distribution warehouse. Peter Law, General Manager takes up the story. "Our existing facilities were hopelessly inadequate. They were unable to store the amount of stockneeded to support our growing business and they were also inefficient when it came to orderpicking and restocking."

Peter goes on: "We talked to a number of potential suppliers and decided on Redirack. We were impressed by their keenness to find the right solution to our problem and notjust sell a standard low-cost option."

The Redirack answer was an impex high rise shelving system with an integralsuspended floor and access stairway. Fed by a conveyor the shelving system has four double entry rows and two single entry rows each with eight beam levels. In total the shelving system has 770 bays, each having the capacity to store up to sixty trays of product. InterCity Watches uses each bay to store three product lines so the system provides around two thousand three hundred storage locations.

"Our shelving system is adjustable which means we can adapt it as the needs of our business change" explains Peter. "Right now we are looking at the system again as our business is continuing to grow. If we do extend it we would definitely go back to Redirack. The installation of our existing system was fast, smooth and trouble-free. And, if you consider that Redirack also installed the fire alarm system, emergency lighting and conveyor, they made the whole process pretty straightforward."

InterCity's profits have soared since the warehouse was refitted. Peter Law sees a key contributory factor being the better stock management facilitated by the new storage system, and improved delivery timings due to a more efficient warehouse. "We are very pleased with the way the project has gone. To make what is a significant capital investment and have it impact our profitability so soon is particularly pleasing." Not the sentiments of a small time operation!