The Situation

Hornby is the UK’s leading model railway manufacturer and a household name amongst model railway enthusiasts. With its origins firmly rooted back to the beginnings of the twentieth century, Hornby has established a reputation as the industry benchmark for quality. This carefully acquired reputation has partly arisen as a result of the excellent service Hornby provides to its extensive portfolio of customers. With a significant proportion of its customer base constituting high street and shopping centre retailers, a reliable and cost efficient carrier is crucial to ensure that its stock arrives at the stores on time, and in excellent condition.

Having used another carrier for more than seven years, Hornby decided to change operator in 2006 after an in-depth review of the service and cost benefits of doing so. With service efficiency posing as the primary drive, cost was also a crucial consideration with Hornby’s status as a PLC company demanding that they implement a thorough review of the marketplace for the most competitive supplier.

The Solution

UK Mail was able to provide a solution to enable Hornby to meet its key objective of instigating cost savings -without compromising on quality of service. In fact, UK Mail’s next day delivery solution offered an improvement on Hornby’s existing distribution service as well as providing enhanced flexibility and different service innovations.

So how was UK Mail able to achieve this?

UK Mail was able to meet and exceed Hornby’s expectations by implementing a new operational framework which merged both companies’ IT systems. Hornby was able to utilise the full range of sophisticated service features available from UK Mail to ensure the far more efficient despatch of their consignments. This included a far higher transparency of their consignments’ journeys from point of collection to delivery, thanks to UK Mail'’s full track and trace capabilities. Flexible collection times and a high standard of service performance in addition to full and comprehensive reporting tailored specifically to Hornby’s customers’ requirements were added service benefits the business was able to enjoy. The supply of a full stand trailer every day has also allowed for ease of loading and a quick turn around to Business Post locations for sortation and subsequent delivery.

The Impact

These various benefits have had a huge impact on Hornby’s commercial success as well as its reputation amongst its customers. As a result of switching to UK Mail, various key customers of Hornby’s have been able to log online and confirm that their parcels have been sent, as well as tracking and tracing their progress throughout the network. With full visibility of the distribution process now available, Hornby has reported increased levels of satisfaction amongst its own customers. As well as Hornby’s customers having increased levels of transparency the business’s own logistics management team are now also able to pinpoint and accumulate vital information needed for management controls and reporting.

Regular monthly meetings between both businesses have meant that existing systems are reviewed on a regular basis and that optimum working procedures using state of the art technology continue to be put in place.

The Future

Hornby and UK Mail continue to enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship. Last December, one of Hornby’s busiest months, an impressive 17,140 parcels passed through the UK Mail network, and this figure is anticipated as being significantly higher for December 2008. On an average month UK Mail can expect to deliver approximately 10,000 parcels for Hornby. Hornby and UK Mail’s partnership is based on excellent working relations, trust and high levels of service. As Hornby’s inevitable expansion continues, including the recent purchase of Corgi, so too does its distribution requirements with UK Mail meeting and fulfilling its service obligations to the extremely high standards Hornby has come to expect of it.