Manchester Wholesaler Bits n’ Bobs chooses RouteMagic and makes the move towards a digital future
Going Digital
Inventory Management
Visibility & Stock Control
Bits N Bobs are an FMCG wholesaler based in Manchester, servicing convenience stores throughout the North West.
They supply a range of household essentials, stationery, vaping and mobile phone accessories that are displayed on Spinner Stands that their reps are responsible for restocking and merchandising.
Bits N Bobs have been MESL customers on our legacy M-POS platform for many years and upgraded to RouteMagic to help build greater control and efficiency into their operations whilst taking advantage of its modern technology.
Sam Choudry, Bits N Bobs owner, understood that a key area of concern for the business has been the need for better stock control throughout the whole organisation.
Using their previous system, each route would have its own stock warehouse and reps were able to top-up their stock daily from the central warehouse. Stock control using their manual system was largely based on trust, resulting in either stock being lost, reported missing or the drivers had to deal with stock surpluses on the route. Managing stock became a weekly burden of stock-takes for each van and manual verification, with an unacceptable level of stock shrinkage and limited visibility of the actual cause.
Digitising their Operation
RouteMagic provided a solution to the stock management problem with its extensive inventory control system. This allows users to create multiple warehouses and make simple stock movements between warehouses.
Sales Reps can submit a stock requisition from their mobile devices and the warehouse team can pick the stock ready for the Rep to collect the next day. RouteMagic automatically adjusts these changing stock levels as they happen. Stock levels are always available in the office application, so the warehouse team have full visibility of where stock is and its utilisation, with their team being able to transfer excess stock to the routes where it’s needed most.
Inventory Management
The RouteMagic inventory control system manages all stock movements from issues and returns to the main warehouse, allows drivers to manage stock loads with van-to-van transfers and manual picks from the main warehouse.
This ensures the integrity of stock levels and valuation. The extensive inventory options allow Sam to keep accurate stock records at all levels of his business, whilst enabling him to reduce his working capital requirements for stock.
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Visibility & Optimised Stock Control
The display spinners are now pre-configured as Planograms ensuring all retailers are stocked to the optimum level and merchandised correctly.
The implementation of RouteMagic has achieved Sam’s original goals; Bits N Bobs now have full control of their stock holding, eliminating the stock shrinkage that was previously at 14% and saving time throughout the sales process.
In the coming months, Sam is keen to bring greater control into other areas of his sales process, by managing routes and customer schedules better than the current standalone spreadsheet-based call lists he produces by introducing the RoutePlanner to manage this critical element of the business.
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Sam has also taken advantage of many other new features in the RouteMagic system to make his team more productive. In-store servicing time of customers has reduced, and he can now see the real-time activity of his sales team and track their movements through the Route Monitor.
Moving forward, Sam is looking to achieve greater control over other areas of their sales processes. He wants to improve the management of route and customer schedules using our Route Planning module, along with various other developments.