The British e-commerce division of DS Smith has helped discount retailer The Works Stores to come up with a corrugated storage solution for its new warehouse facility.

The Works sells books, stationery, gifts, toys, gifts, and arts and crafts, all at discounted rates, while serving over 22.5 million customers annually.

As part of a recent expansion, the retailer had shifted to a new storage and distribution facility to house its vast product base.

The entertainment retailer with 18,000 stock keeping units (SKUs) needed a flexible storage solution to sort and store that would give it the best possible efficiency for its operations.

The Works distribution interim head Peter Jowitt said: “One of the biggest challenges we’ve faced is finding the most efficient and reliable solution for our storage warehouse, particularly as our range of products is so varied and growing all the time.

“For our new facility, we needed a product which had in-built flexibility and could adapt according to the size of both the products and storage space available.”

DS Smith through its specialist e-commerce team had come up with a corrugated pick bin for The Works that created flexibility, strength, ease of assembly and durability at the new facility.

According to DS Smith, the made-to-measure pick bin also lets The Works to use every space within the warehouse, to ensure high product visibility to enable the picking team to work efficiently, and to keep any damage during the storing process at the bare minimum.

DS Smith UK e-commerce sales manager Sara Blount said that the packaging firm had a strong understanding of The Works’ business, its e-commerce pack and pick operation layout and also its operational limitations following years of collaboration with the retailer.

Blount added: “Using this insight, we were able to evaluate the space available and take on board the needs of the packaging operatives and the business as a whole to find a flexible, best-fit solution for a business with unpresented UK growth, and we’ve designed, produced and delivered that.”


Image: The made-to-measure pick bin designed by DS Smith for The Works. Photo: courtesy of DS Smith.