Bathstore and the K8 bathroom distribution software

In 2002, Bathstore.com considered its strategy, and the infrastructure, required to support the business into the future. At that time, the organisation consisted of ten branches, with a new 80,000 square foot warehouse scheduled to open in November 2002.

Changing the IT systems and infrastructure, to a solution more tuned to Bathstore.com’s market requirements, was seen as essential to meet with business plans. However, equally important, was the timing of the project. Andy Campbell, IT Director of Bathstore.com, explains, “it was vital for us to implement a new system, extremely quickly, so as to avoid disruption and upheaval to day-to-day business during seasonal sales campaigns – some of our busiest times.”

Bathstore.com scoured the market in search of an IT partner who could meet their stringent requirements. After thorough investigation and evaluation, Kerridge Commercial Systems was selected as having the pedigree, proven track-record and full spectrum of solutions and services that Bathstore.com demanded for their business going forward. Andy Campbell comments, “apart from having a fantastic solution, and all of the credentials we sought, one of the clinchers, for our decision to implement *Kerridge Commercial Systems’ K8 solution, was the incredibly strong references from other users in our market place. Kerridge Commercial Systems were given a glowing reference by all.”

The decision to proceed was made, in September 2002, and a strict deadline was set for project completion by commencement of the January 2003 sale. This timescale included the implementation of all of Bathstore.com’s branches, the head office functions and the new warehouse. In addition, they also took the opportunity to introduce enhanced load planning functionality into the system. The tight deadline offered a number of challenges to the project team. Nevertheless, by January 2003, Kerridge Commercial Systems had successfully managed to fully implement the solution. This included quotations and orderprocessing, stock control, forecasting and replenishment, warehouse management and financial management. After the installation, Bathstore.com enjoyed their most successful January (in their history, at that time) with record sales figures.

In the middle of 2003, discussions with Wolseley Plc concluded and Bathstore.com became part of the organisation. Subsequently, Wolseley’s Just Bathrooms was integrated into Bathstore.com, with the ten branches making up the former Just Bathrooms chain, fully rebranded by August 2003

Prior to Kerridge Commercial Systems’ involvement with this project, Bathstore.com were in discussions with Datatrak Limited, who provide vehicle tracking services. The Datatrak offering has a wide range of capabilities including: sequencing loads and creating efficient delivery routes; signature capture on delivery; and consignment tracking over the internet (by entering their order number, customers can see where the delivery vehicle is, together with its estimated time of arrival). After early talks between the two companies, it became clear to Bathstore.com that they should effect an introduction between Datatrak and *Kerridge Commercial Systems. Both companies were happy to work together in providing an elegant solution, not only for Bathstore.com, but for future customers.

Essentially, Bathstore.com’s aim was to support the steady flow of new stores (including a further distribution centre) by refining logistics and warehousing. Their warehouses have one or more designated functions e.g. replenishment (pallets only), main stock and supply, and satellite functions; with store demand being satisfied via a ‘preferred’ warehouse, with distribution and trunking similarly linked. Today, these relationships and stocking rules are managed, in their entirety, through Kerridge Commercial Systems' K8 system, to the point of producing a vehicle manifest that automatically checks vehicle capacity and that cleared funds are available against the goods due to be picked. The manifest is then passed electronically to the integrated routing and tracking package, from Datatrak.

Following the implementation of Bathstore.com, *Kerridge Commercial Systems and Datatrak’s relationship has developed further and they now have an official partnership in place and are collaborating on a number of projects for existing and new clients.

Since the addition of logistics and warehousing functions into the system, *Kerridge Commercial Systems has worked with Bathstore.com in the provision of hosting and disaster recovery services. This is increasingly important to Bathstore.com as they grow – the necessity to ensure business continuity ever more crucial. With hosting and disaster recovery, *Kerridge Commercial Systems have servers, (located at Hungerford and Bristol) to enable business to continue with as little disruption as possible and with the assurance that critical systems and information remains intact.

Bathstore.com’s business continues to evolve, now boasting over 100 stores. Andy Campbell comments, “in continuing to exploit the opportunities available to us, it is vital that we work closely with an IT partner who offers knowledge, experience and the best possible solution to support our demanding business plan. Key to this is on-going investment and development in the product, for maximum flexibility and scaleability, to take Bathstore.com into the future. We look forward to continuing our excellent relationship with *Kerridge Commercial Systems, as we expand.”

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