Wren Kitchens celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2019, reporting an annual turnover of £643m – up 20% on the year before. The company‘s logistics team delivered over 91,000 kitchens direct to customers’ homes using an in-house fleet of 214 commercial vehicles.
Recent highlights include an impressive £2.91m in efficiency savings, including a 33% reduction in road miles following the launch of its new ‘TripleTrunking’ delivery strategy, which involves the use of demountable box bodies transported on one 18-tonner rather than three separate vans. It also saw a 14% improvement in fuel consumption and a 3,330kg reduction in CO2 emissions after the introduction of a more efficient Mercedes-Benz truck range, while its new Xena Quartz facility, with double-deck trunking trailers, has reduced delivery times by up to eight weeks.
Over 80% of Wren’s managers have been promoted from within and its training and personal development courses include the launch of a driver apprenticeship programme.
Last year also saw the launch of ‘My Journey’, featuring customer-personalised animated videos illustrating the whole order-to-delivery process. These are emailed to customers at key stages and are available via the My Account App.
Feeding into My Account is FlexiPod – a handheld tool used by drivers and warehouse personnel providing single lines of communication between drivers, the delivery team, customer services and the customer. Delivery windows are logged on FlexiPod and advised to the customer via a call or SMS, which automatically updates the delivery team.
Wren employs 586 people in transport and logistics and has set up quarterly driver meetings attended by directors and managers, as well as introducing weekly and quarterly bulletins and newsletters dedicated to the delivery team.
“This company recognises the power in taking control of the whole of its supply chain, then adding excellent customer service on top,” said one of our judges. “It clearly demonstrates the power of good training and internal promotion to help drive the company forward.”
"The award means a lot to us. It reflects on everyone’s hard work. We work as one big team and without everyone’s contribution and commitment we wouldn’t get these awards. We’ve won it by pushing the boundaries of what’s achievable, thinking outside the box and trying to be the best at everything we do."
Tim Pearson