Jeyes is one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of domestic cleaning products. The business was originally founded by John Jeyes, who first patented a disinfectant fluid in 1877 which is still marketed today as Jeyes Fluid. Since those early years, many products have been developed and new business acquired, so that the company now sells a wide range of Household cleaning products and Air Fresheners to over 60 countries worldwide. Its customers in the UK range from the small wholesaler to the major retailers such as Tesco and Sainsbury.

Overview

The Company is based in Norfolk but also has manufacturing facilities in Scotland and the North-West, as well as across Europe and North America. Its distribution operations had grown successfully over many years, but with development and change, not to mention the ever increasing demands of its major customers, the Directors believed that the business would benefit from a fresh view of how the UK warehousing and distribution network operated.

Our Role

The Logistics Business was appointed to undertake the review, with a wide ranging brief covering all logistics activities, from the day to day warehouse processes through to warehouse locations and the distribution network. The work undertaken included mapping warehouse processes, benchmarking operating costs against sector standards, and building a detailed supply chain model covering the movement of goods from the manufacturing sites, through the warehousing network, to the customers. The model was used to compare a number of operating scenarios on the basis of both cost and customer service.

The Solution

The results were highly significant for Jeyes, not because of the radical changes that were proposed, but because, on the whole, The Logistics Business was able to confirm that the company had a sound and robust logistics operation which was well suited to its current and future needs. Even so, The Logistics Business was still able to identify a number of key areas where improvements were possible, and proposed a number of recommendations for the short and medium term development.