Aylesford

The announcement that Aylesford had become Waitrose’s fourth Regional Distribution Centre was made on the 2nd October 2006. The 600,000 sq ft premises, purchased from Morrisons, would eventually have the capacity to serve 70 branches and was due to open in May of 2007. During the recruitment process, 200 people were interviewed and given a brief overview of the Partnership, including its democracy and principles, followed by a presentation on the Pick by Voice system. Waitrose needed another RDC to ensure a supply chain robust enough to support the further expansion of the business.

Glynis Gunning-Stevenson was very enthusiastic about her job as manager of Aylesford: “This is the first time we have opened a Partner-run distribution centre from scratch, so we’re copying the best and most relevant bits of each of the other RDC’s and putting them together to create the fourth RDC.”

Glynis visited some of the 25 Waitrose shops her new centre would be supporting “The branches are our customers and I want all my Partners to understand those customers’ needs. That’s why I’ll also be encouraging my team to get out to the branches. It’s all about effective communication.”

RDCs act as a centralised collection point for stock, receiving deliveries from Waitrose suppliers across the country, picking the specific orders for each of their allocated branches and then redistributing it to those branches via the Waitrose distribution fleet.