Bartholomews Specialist Distribution

Source: Supply Chain Digital

Date :29/08/2007 12:13:31

Best of both worlds: Bartholomews Specialist Distribution brings the personal touch to 3PL

Providing comprehensive and effective solutions across a broad range of industry sectors, Bartholomews Specialist Distribution (BSD) leverages over 100 years of experience in providing warehousing and fulfillment services. James Hurley spoke to great grandson of the founder and Group Board Director Richard Bartholomew about the personal touch and economies of scale the company’s third party warehousing operations brings to its clients

Written by James Hurley & Produced by Paul Radbourne

With its roots in Agriculture dating back to 1881 - something the Group is still very much involved in today - Bartholomews entered third party distribution business through maximising the use of buildings that were under utilised between the agricultural trading seasons. What started as pure storage of products for other companies soon developed into handling and stock control. Eventually, in 1985, Bartholomews Specialist Distribution was founded as a stand-alone business from which it has continued to develop to where it is today.

The Bartholomews Group which has a turnover of £45 million has four trading companies; Bartholomews Specialist Distribution, Bartholomews Agri Food Limited (providing services for the agricultural community), Churchill Freight Services (a transport company that services Group requirements as well as external customers) and Shoreham Silo Services (a major export grain loading facility)

Increasing demands

With the ever increasing demands of retailers and such a high proportion of consumer goods now being manufactured in the Far East and being brought in by container, third party warehouse provision is an invaluable service for many companies. “Many opportunities in the warehousing sector derive from the fact that so much is imported now from the Far East, which means that stock management can be more difficult” says Richard Bartholomew “You’re exposed to factory production times, shipping times, and still expected to have just in time ordering as if goods were manufactured locally or regionally.

“Retail is demanding with the national superstore chains and also the independents. In this environment, I think there is an important role for a company like ours to sit between the retail customer and the off shore production facility to deal with stock coming out of containers and ensure it’s customised, quality controlled, assembled if necessary and delivered exactly where it’s meant to be, when it’s meant to be there.

“One of the benefits of using a third party warehousing company like ourselves is that it enables companies to benefit from economies of scale that they might not be able to achieve otherwise,” he says.

Richard believes that as the combined considerations of employing people, taking on warehousing, adhering to health and safety considerations and being trapped in long term leases becomes “more of a minefield,” outsourcing warehousing operations is becoming increasingly attractive. “It offers a way out of those worries,” he says. “I think it’s a very cost effective way for businesses to only pay for the amount of space that they actually need and they can have a scaleable operation that will grow with them.”

Based in Southern England, the company operates from three distribution sites; Chichester, Eastleigh and Southampton.

Essentially an SME operator that targets other small to medium sized businesses, BSD prides itself on a personalised approach that larger logistics providers can’t offer.

“The directors, including myself, have been in the business a long time and we have all worked on the shop floor and still do when necessary ,” Richard says. Fellow directors Peter Steele and Barry Smith have 40 years worth of industry experience between them, and Richard, great grandson of John Bartholomew, has been in the industry for eight years.

“We tend to be a hands-on business. We’re focused meeting the commitments we have made to our customers, and our hands-on approach allows us to ensure that these commitments are followed all the way through on the shop floor. I think that’s a differentiating factor between Bartholomews and some of the other companies in the this marketplace.”

A single point of contact

Alongside its specialist warehousing business, BSD grows fleet capabilities every year. Their transport company Churchill freight services currently has 35 articulated vehicles and is part of the much celebrated Pall-Ex network. “The transport side is crucial because it allows us to offer that end-to-end service. It’s a big selling point when you’re responsible for every aspect - it means the customer has one point of contact all the way through. It gives us the ability to have complete control,” explains Richard.

The company’s fleet of modern vehicles allows it to offer a multi-level service that includes deliveries and collections to and from high street and wholesale operators on a just in time, next day, three day or timed basis. It also has a network of established contract carriers.

As distribution increasingly involves dealing with imports from China and other Eastern countries, BSD has expanded this end-to-end offering by providing product assembly. “We find ourselves becoming involved in more product re-work and assembly. With goods coming from China, we often get products that aren’t quite right and need to be quality controlled.. That has become an integral part of the services that we offer as more of our clients are importing from the Far East. It is something we have been doing it for a long time, but it seems that it’s becoming a much larger part of what we do. It is a case of maintaining attention to detail throughout, combined with the organisational skills to make sure it’s delivered within narrow time scales,” Richard says.

And the challenge of narrow time scales is something that Richard is only too familiar with. “The demands put onto our customers by their customers are pushed back onto us. There’s always increasing pressure on turnaround times – we often see ourselves unloading containers at night with the same product then being delivered the following morning. I think this is compounded by the problems that we have with rather stretched UK port facilities at the moment.”

The UK suffers from a lack of port capacity, which is particularly acute at peak times of the year. This is an issue that affects everyone in the industry, and one for which there is no easy or quick solution.

However, by combining the flexibility and personal touch of a medium sized company with a comprehensive distribution network, the company is well placed to provide a professional, customer focused logistics service. Richard summarises this approach. “When things get really busy, you will find me on the back of a container as you will the other directors. We’re not a huge corporate, and it’s a tribute to the level of service that we provide that our most successful marketing tool is word of mouth.”