The Client
Green Umbrella Sport and Leisure Ltd was founded in 1990 as a producer of Special Interest videos for the burgeoning UK sell-through market. Quite quickly the company became one of the UK's largest distributor of sports based programming and developed strong links with many High Street retailers, producing, on an exclusive basis, own brand titles for the likes of WH Smith, Marks and Spencer and Past Times. Green Umbrella is the official distributor for many top brand names including the RFU, ECB, Welsh FA, The Royal and Ancient Golf Club, and the All England Lawn Tennis Club. In 2003, Green Umbrella moved into book publishing with an exclusive agreement to supply a 'History of' sports books range to Marks and Spencer. The company is also developing and expanding other facets to its business including a direct-to-consumer mail order operation, an International TV sales arm and an e-commerce web site

The Need
Green Umbrella uses Hackett and Sea Ltd, a freight forwarding company, to bring many of its products in from overseas. The company required a logistics provider that could collect its products from the Hackett facility in Romford, Essex, and store it in an appropriate manner which enables quick and economical dispatch of both individual and multiple items to its extensive customer base throughout the UK.

The Solution
SW collects palletised loads from the freight forwarder and stores it at its Chelworth plant in Cricklade, near Swindon. With modern, secure, food-grade storage conditions, this is an ideal facility for Green Umbrellas stock which comprises books, videos, DVDs and gift sets It is also close to WH Smiths, a key customer of Green Umbrella, and Green Umbrellas own co-ordinating office in Swindon. SW designates each product code with a unique stock location and manages stock information utilising the Traderman Warehouse Manager system. This system ensures information is accurate and, utilising EDI and the web, affords full visibility of stock status to the client. Orders are submitted by the client via e-mail. SW picks and palletises the orders, arranges delivery and books these in. Small quantities often have to be dispatched at very short notice. SW determines the medium of delivery and uses the Royal Mail and Interlink for very small parcels, thus achieving maximum cost efficiencies.

The Results
SW is able to provide Green Umbrella with an efficient, reliable, cost-effective service which has enabled it to offer its customers excellent customer service.

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