WHSmith has awarded Menzies Logistics Solutions a three-year £1.5 million final mile delivery deal, for which it will deliver stock to 110 WHSmith stores in the North of England.
Goods, including DVDs, books, e-readers, and sweet food will be packed at WHSmith’s Birmingham distribution centre, before being delivered to Menzies’ northern warehouses.
From there they will be delivered to shops in Chester, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, and York.
“The geographic spread of our warehouses means we are able to offer them a truly competitive deal and reduce road miles for their stock,” said Menzies’ general manager, Stuart McLean.
The company will offer both day and night delivery, and provide WHSmith with a dedicated customer service number, to further support the deal.
“We have focused on providing a seamless transition for WHSmith – all of our drivers had extra training and visited the stores ahead of our new contract beginning,” added McLean.
“For those stores where we already deliver newspapers and magazines each morning there is the possibility of even more consolidation of services in the future.”
Menzies Logistics Solutions is a division of Menzies Distribution, a marketing, logistics, and delivery specialist, which primarily serves clients in the press, travel, and tourism sectors.
It delivers five million newspapers and 2.1 million magazine a day, as well as 7.5 million travel brochures a month.
* John Menzies plc sold its chain of retail stores to WH Smith in 1998 to concentrate on its logistics business. It now has two divisions, Menzies Distribution, which focuses on the UK news and magazine market, and Menzies Aviation, which provides aviation support services.
WH Smith demerged its newspaper and magazine distribution business in 2006 to focus on its retail operation. The news distribution business now trades as Smiths News plc.
