£350k savings for a leading UK building materials supplier

£350k savings for a leading UK building materials supplier

15th December 2025 | 2 min read

The Challenge

A national UK building materials supplier required a comprehensive supply chain diagnostic and strategic vision review to support future growth and operational efficiency. The primary challenge was validating the strategic decision to move to an enlarged National Distribution Centre (260k-300k ft²).

Furthermore, our client sought to improve their customer’s experience through fast, flexible, and cost-effective delivery, expanding the next-day offer, and identifying the potential for same-day delivery for both trade and retail customers.

This necessitated an evaluation of warehouse design (including automation and safe handling of large-format products), systems roadmap alignment, and defining the strategic role of the store in order fulfilment.

The Solution

Unipart performed a high-level diagnostic assessment, reviewing the Supply Chain Vision by focusing on the eight key questions across five critical areas: Network design, customer proposition, warehouse design, systems roadmap, and order fulfilment. The resulting report provided a clear, validated strategic direction, including recommendations to leverage technology for competitive advantage, revisiting same-day delivery models using partners, and optimising final-mile logistics.

Further recommendations following the project included a roadmap for future automation ambitions, ensuring efficient, safe storage and handling of extended ranges, while aligning the systems roadmap to support the proposed network and operational changes.

The Impact

The diagnostic provided the customer with a clear, strategic supply chain roadmap, validating their future network design direction and clarifying the optimal customer experience. Through the implementation of operational excellence ways of working within their distribution centres, a direct financial benefit of £350,000 was identified through increased capacity and reduced damages.

Unipart’s solutions gave the client a defined path for automation and improvements in the working environment. By outlining strategic opportunities in same-day delivery and leveraging innovative final-mile logistics providers, the report enabled the customer to significantly enhance its service offering, improve internal efficiencies, and build a competitive advantage in the trade and retail markets.

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