It’s all in the timing
Marks and Spencer has under-invested in its supply chain over the last few decades, leading to relatively sluggish and unresponsive performance that has held the business back.
The management admits its record could have been better and the company has the legacy of a highly distributed supply chain comprising many far-flung warehouses.
M&S is now revamping in a major way with plans to start building a portside distribution centre at London Gateway next year, which follows the unveiling of its 900,000 sq ft DC at Castle Donington which deals with both store replenishment and online orders.
M&S has over 100 warehouses in the model and it aims to reduce this to three DCs.
The London Gateway site will serve stores in the South East and push products destined for the north to the other DCs.
The move could reduce the two to three week lead time from port to store to one day.
Indeed, the delay by M&S in changing its distribution model may turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
What better time to re-configure a supply chain than now?
The mooted move towards portcentric logistics and the onus on reconfiguring the distribution model to maximise fulfillment in an Omni-channel world means some retailers may feel under pressure to change things radically even before current infrastructure investments have matured.
It’s all about timing, and maybe M&S has got lucky.
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