Building our supply chain for the future in Stoke-on-Trent

As a long term business, we make decisions that will provide benefits over the years to come as we continue to grow. We’re careful to ensure we do things the right way, for our customers and suppliers, our colleagues and their communities.

Distribution Centre 2 – Stoke-on-Trent

In June 2016, we opened our new Distribution Centre, a stone’s throw from our existing facilities in Stoke-on-Trent.

Building and opening the new site, was a substantial project with capital investment of over £12m involving a cross-functional team of colleagues working together, alongside external contractors, for a period of two years to get the new facility ready.

Long term decisions

We opened our first Distribution Centre (“DC1”) in Stoke in 2006, and doubled its size to 500,000 sq ft in 2010. In 2011 Dunelm appointed a Supply Chain Executive Director, who developed a long term supply chain strategy. In 2013 planning began to open further warehouse capacity, to support the growth of the business and the increase in direct-sourced product volumes. At the Board’s strategy discussion in 2014 the decision was made to prioritise growth in our online and furniture businesses which accelerated the need to increase our warehouse capacity and supply chain capability.

In February 2015 the Board approved the business plan to lease the DC2 site and begin the project. The new DC doubled our warehouse capacity to 1,000,000 sq ft. It would enable us to bring outsourced distribution operations onto one site to improve operational efficiency, crisis management capability, and our customer offer, especially relating to online sales orders. In July 2016, we moved our Home Delivery fulfilment operation into DC2.

In November 2016 we acquired the Worldstores business. The new DC has provided the capacity in Stoke to allow Dunelm to move the Kiddicare and Achica operations from their existing site in Peterborough.

Caring for our environment and community

Developing a sustainable DC was a high priority and we’re proud to have received the Planet Mark award highlighting the 418 acres of rainforest protected as a result of the development compared to benchmark sites. Local primary school environmental awareness workshops run by the Eden Project were funded by this award.

As part of the build, we carefully diverted natural waterways and developed new sanctuaries for wildlife onsite to ensure minimal disruption to the local habitat.

To help aid traffic congestion, we built a large bike shelter and showers / locker rooms, and also arranged with the local council for a bus stop to be put outside the warehouse, and for the route to drop off and pick up around shift start and finish times.

Our DC operations handle recycling from our stores enabling us to achieve high landfill diversion rates. The two DCs in Stoke themselves achieve 100% landfill diversion due to careful planning of materials being used inside.