Project Objectives / Requirements
Setting The Scene
Established in 1994, The Fragrance Shop is the UK’s largest independent, fragrance retailer. Operating through online channels and retail stores, they showcase over 6,000 items across their luxury fragrance and beauty products range.
The Fragrance Shop (TFS) had experienced significant growth in recent years, and as part of their objectives for expansion to manage the increase in their e-commerce operations, they had taken a lease at Metro 190 in the heart of Trafford Park, Manchester to provide the business with a new state-of-the-art Headquarters and Fulfilment Centre.
Having previously relied on manual pick operations to fulfil their customers’ online orders, the move to Metro 190 – a prime urban logistics facility totalling 190,660 sq ft incorporating high spec offices and a large warehouse – provided TFS with the opportunity to improve their online sales operations through the automation of their order packaging process. This would not only enhance efficiency and customer service, it would also support their sustainability objectives and complement the environmental credentials of the new facility.
As part of TFS’s drive for efficiency and sustainability, they had invested in a CMC Genesys automated packaging machine which feeds and packs multi-line orders via their patented Vary-Totes, creating a unique structure to match the exact box template required for each order, thereby optimising cardboard consumption.
Efficiency reaches new heights as Vary-Totes glide through the fully automated system
In order to facilitate this highly efficient order packing process, the Vary-Totes need to arrive at and depart from the Genesys machine via a fully automated system.
Through an introduction from Amspec, an office interior company who had designed and installed a contemporary, high quality fit-out for TFS at the new premises, L-A-C was selected to provide the expertise needed to design and install a solution that would fully automate their order packing process.
