Automation facilitates online sales growth
May 1st 2011 Recent trading figures from John
Lewis have confirmed its position as
a highly successful, multichannel
retailer. Its results for the year ended
29 January, released on 9 March,
showed gross sales up 11.9% to £3.23
billion and johnlewis.com sales up
37.9% to just over £538 million.
Automated material handling
systems from KNAPP UK at John
Lewis's flagship distribution centre at
Magna Park,Milton Keynes, have
played a significant role in
facilitating the growth.
With John Lewis now forecasting
£1 billion of direct-to-customer sales
for the year 2013-14 and the
expansion of the johnlewis.com
delivery catchment area this year to
cover international locations, initially
within Europe – automation is certain
to feature strongly in the company's
future distribution strategy.
The £28 million automated
warehouse systems were supplied by
KNAPP as part of a £54 million
investment in the Magna Park site by
John Lewis in 2009. The company's
730,000 sq ft national distribution
centre features over 10km of
conveyors and over a quarter of a
million bin storage locations.
The design of the handling system
was complex due to a number of
factors – the need for flexibility for
growth, the required distribution
strategy of 'little and often'
replenishment and the specific
delivery needs of the company's 28
department stores and four John
Lewis at home shops.
Explains Craig Rollason, head of
sales & marketing for KNAPP UK: "A
major challenge for KNAPP was the
fact that we needed to provide storefriendly
deliveries, despite the fact
that every John Lewis shop is laid out
differently. In addition, the differing
distribution needs of the retail shops
and johnlewis.com had to be
accommodated under one roof."
The department stores typically
stock more than 350,000 separate lines,
while the website stocks over 154,000
products focused on fashion, beauty,
homewares, gifts and electrical items.
Due to the warehouse automation
systems, goods arrive at the shops
shelf-ready, with the majority of
packaging removed and recycled,
saving each branch time and money.
The 'little and often' replenishment
strategy minimises stockholding in its
stores and frees up footprint for sales. More articles from KNAPP UK Ltd: | 
