i2i by Citipost prides itself on understanding its client’s businesses and finding innovative solutions as part of its print, sourcing and delivery consolidation services. Unhappy with the service from its office products supply chain, which was affecting its ability to meet the SLAs set by its clients, i2i turned to us for a solution.

Introducing i2i by Citipost

i2i by Citipost is an innovative tech lead solutions specialist, supplying high street businesses throughout the UK with print, product sourcing and delivery consolidation services. As part of its services it stores goods in its central warehouse, and then picks, packs and delivers them to its client’s high street stores.

Its extensive client base includes leading high street brands operating in over 5000 shops. i2i is not only responsible for delivering specialist point of sale marketing to the 5000 shops each week, but also aggregates orders with a range of 200 everyday essential products.

Challenges with supply and delivery

i2i was using a number of different suppliers to deliver the essential products, including stationery, cleaning items and refreshments to the high street stores. It had inherited the supply chain when it was awarded the two contracts and was experiencing a number of significant challenges.

The incumbent suppliers were struggling to keep up with peaks and troughs in product demand and could not be relied upon to deliver products to i2i’s warehouse within the required lead times. As a result i2i’s deliveries would either be late or incomplete. To compensate i2i was having to hold extra stock in its warehouse. It wanted to consolidate its supply chain and improve the service it delivers to its clients.

A winning combination

We have now been supplying i2i with a range of 200 everyday essential products for a year and is delighted to have been awarded a five year contract worth £10m. We have capitalised on our wholesale supply from VOW, the UK and Ireland’s leading wholesaler of business products and services. Together with VOW, we worked extremely hard to understand i2i Citipost’s contracts and obligations, as well as its client’s supply requirements. This has included consolidating data relating to historic order, forecasts, seasonal trends and VOW’s stock. As a result we have achieved:

• 98% on time in full – i2i is now achieving its key KPI of 98% of orders delivered on time in full to its clients.
• Significant cost savings – annual savings of nearly £500k and projects savings of nearly £2.5m over the five year contract.
• One weekly delivery – i2i receives one complete delivery each week on a 40 foot articulated lorry. The 40 pallets are carefully arranged to enable i2i to unload, store and pick goods with ease.
• Reduced packaging and carbon emissions – Consolidating its orders onto a single delivery not only reduces the i2i’s carbon footprint, but also packaging and paperwork.
• Reduced storage – Providing a 100% reliable delivery service enables i2i to reduce the amount of stock in its warehouse, freeing up space and delivering additional cost savings.
• Reduced management – Whilst i2i still rely on specialist suppliers for certain products, consolidating its supply chain for the remaining products has significantly reduced the workload for its staff.

We are currently working with i2i to launch a new online ordering website, which will provide access to an additional range of products that store managers can order online direct from us. With 24,000 products in the VOW product range, the shops will be able to order a vast range of specialist and ad hoc products from an approved supplier, as and when required.

“The team has worked extremely hard to ensure we receive all our deliveries on time and in full. They are proactive and constantly innovate to ensure optimum service and solutions. We now have 100% confidence in our supply chain and we’re meeting our client’s KPIs and SLAs, which will stand us in very good stead for securing new business in the future.”