Pure-play contract logistics provider GXO Logistics has signed an agreement with UK homewares retailer Dunelm Group to provide increased capacity for its home delivery fulfillment operations in Stoke‑on‑Trent in the UK.
GXO will outfit Dunelm’s new facility in Stoke with Cognex machine vision systems and ProGlove wireless wearable barcode scanners as well as train Dunelm colleagues. The training will consist of learning to use GXO’s systems, pick items from inventory that have been ordered online, pack them efficiently, and hand them off to carriers for delivery. To add capacity to Dunelm’s operations, the partnership will increase throughput and improve delivery efficiency to reduce carbon emissions for the rapid growth of Dunelm’s home delivery business while improving employee safety.
Since opening the first Dunelm store in 1984, the homewares retailer has expanded across the UK and now has more than 175 stores nationwide and an online webstore.
GXO Logistics is a pure-play contract logistics provider with more than 850 warehouse locations, totaling approximately 200,000,000ft2 in a US$430bn total addressable market that is benefiting from the rapid growth of e-commerce, automation and outsourcing.
Gavin Williams, managing director of GXO’s UK and Ireland divisions, said, “We’re very excited about the opportunity to work with Dunelm, which saw a 115% surge in online sales in the last 12 months. We’re looking forward to helping the company increase its capacity for home delivery, especially in the run-up to its peak homewares sales season in January.”
Brett Morris, head of parcel home delivery for Dunelm, said, “We’re delighted to be working with GXO, which has a proven ability to improve logistics with large customers around the globe. We looked at our outstanding growth in online sales as well as at our expectations for further growth and realized we needed to increase capacity and improve our customer proposition within home delivery operations.
“The agreement with GXO will help us add the capacity necessary to handle growth of our home delivery business and reduce our carbon emissions by making our deliveries more efficient. Long-term, working with GXO will benefit our shareholders and customers as well as our suppliers and communities.”