The start of a new year is a good time to look back at the last, and assess how businesses performed, and how they might approach the year ahead. Rhenus Home Delivery UK came through 2022 with an enviable report card, having achieved multiple breakthroughs that expedited its already-ambitious growth targets …
“As a company that represents many key brands in the industry, it’s so important that all our contact with their customers continues to make a positive impression,” states Rhenus Home Delivery UK, “and our expansion into a new 258,000 sqft warehouse at Magna Park, Lutterworth has truly enabled us to expand our final-mile network.”
The new facility functions as the fulfilment specialit’s central distribution centre, and enables it to adapt to an influx of deliveries, while offering advanced storage solutions by operating a JIT model. “This model has improved the quality of the services we deliver to the customer, facilitating a greater number of available delivery dates as we start to integrate our next-day delivery promise,” says Rhenus.
Last year saw Rhenus Home Delivery UK place a great deal of focus on training and development, and the business is now in the final stages of opening a new training facility, the Academy of Excellence. Rhenus says the new, state-of-the-art facility will be fully equipped with spaces designed to recreate real-world home environments, including a bedroom, living room, dining room and utility room.
On-site classroom training will ensure that the company’s two-man home delivery crews operate to the highest standards, including practical training on product handling within the home, says Rhenus. Warehouse processes and operational courses will cover all aspects of health and safety, customer interaction and material-handling theory and practice. The learning styles utilised will be varied, accommodating for all types of learner to ensure a complete and inclusive learning experience.
The academy will also offer interactive e-learning courses on the company’s in-house transport and warehouse management systems, as well as certified customer service training, health and safety and fire safety training. Materials handling, including very-narrow aisle, electric, counterbalance and lift-cage forklift training, will also feature on the curriculum.
H2 heroes
“Last year, we also improved our customer journey by integrating a three-step animated video guide into our delivery communications, to advise customers on how best to prepare their properties for delivery,” says Rhenus, adding that the delivery animation has improved customer engagement by +57.6% in comparison to its previous SMS and email communications. “We have also expanded our Rhenus Home Delivery fleet to facilitate an increased volume of goods in our network. This includes EV 3.5 tonne two-man delivery vehicles, which have contributed to minimising our carbon footprint.
“In Q4, our environmental efforts received high recognition for our sustainability partnership with The Furniture Recycling Group at the Supply Chain Excellence Awards. In 2022, we reached the milestone of a quarter of a million mattresses recycled, and are aiming for greater volumes with our new on-site mattress compression system.
Rhenus says that mattresses have been the most difficult waste stream to divert from landfill for many years, and that by creating innovative new processes, the business has been able to provide a cost- and CO2-beneficial way to divert 100% of the mattresses collected from landfill, to continue a valuable lifecycle.
Rhenus Home Delivery UK has also invested heavily in experienced employees, seeing a +50% increase in staff numbers, while conducting its first full Rhenus Group employee net promotor score (ENPS) has given the senior management team better insight into how they can improve systems and processes that are in place for the benefit of every department across the business.
CEO of Rhenus Home Delivery UK, Vinny Riley, concludes: “The opening of the new academy is a first for Rhenus in the UK. The new centre represents our continued investment in and commitment to compliance, customer service excellence and of course, customer experience. The completion of Magna Park, as well as our focus on optimised systems and solutions, enable the Rhenus Home Delivery UK network to grow and deliver greater volumes for our valued clients.”
