Zest 4 Leisure has revealed that its pre-season preparation is already paying off.
 
The unseasonal short burst of warm sunny weather in late February and March proved to be an excellent dress rehearsal for the forthcoming peak season. With temperatures making it feel like summer, the garden industry sprang into action with orders flooding in from across the UK, resulting in an increased flow of goods being dispatched from the Saltney warehouse and distribution centre.
 
Commenting on the pre-season spike, Alwyn Williams, Head of Zest 4 Leisure, said: “The warehouse and distribution centre at Saltney had a busy start to 2019 with orders pouring in from Zest 4 Leisure garden centre customers nationwide, looking to reorder and replenish their stock of timber garden products. The picking and packing dispatch teams did a great job, ensuring products were delivered in a matter of days.
 
“This ability to cope with the unexpected spike in demand is thanks to the many improvements and investments in time and resources we made at Saltney at the end of the 2018 season. The warehouse has been restructured with a maximum emphasis on LEAN and 5S implementation. We also moved towards zonal picking which increased our distribution and delivery capacity.”
 
The team at Zest also worked on improving services at Saltney and created extra loading bays for efficient unloading and loading of goods. Site traffic flow and pedestrian safety improvements were also put in place and the goods arrival method was enhanced allowing for even more robust quality control procedures.
 
Alwyn concludes: “We have made great strides forward in terms of improving our processes and procedures and the use of the new SAP system, also building capability through training and project team initiatives, all of which are already paying off.”
 
“Zest 4 Leisure is gearing up for another busy year so this level of performance showed us that the progress that has been made to deal with the surges in demand, has paid off.
 
“This early increase in demand shows we are much better equipped than previous years to cope with seasonal fluctuations and surges in demand.”

Pictured (from left to right): Linda Pace, Paul Haynes, Alwyn Williams and Steve Morgan from Zest 4 Leisure.