// CASE STUDY //

IN A SECTOR WHERE CONSISTENCY IS CRITICAL, LONG-TERM CUSTOMERS TEND TO STAY WITH SUPPLIERS THEY TRUST TO DELIVER ACCURATELY, DAY IN AND DAY OUT.

How has the company grown since implementing Orderwise?

Since going live with Orderwise in January

2020, the business has continued to grow significantly. We’ re now on track for around £ 25 million in turnover, and we’ ve gone from around 20 staff to approximately 90-100 today, helped by the recent acquisition of one of our manufacturers. We’ ve expanded from a small attached warehouse to operating around 75,000 sq. ft. of warehousing across the site.

Operationally, we’ ve more than doubled our daily order capacity – from roughly 50 orders a day to 200 + – while maintaining around 99 % picking accuracy. We’ ve also added handheld scanners in the warehouse and grown our fleet to over 12 vans covering the north and central regions of England and North Wales. We are now able to offer a next day turnaround in other areas of the country, utilising thirdparty couriers, due to the efficiencies aided by Orderwise. We also now have a strong nationwide footprint supported by online selfservice orders through the Trade Portal.

Did you need to find new warehouse premises?

Yes – several times. We started with a small warehouse attached to our main building and initially thought we’ d‘ never need anything bigger’. Since then we’ ve put a mezzanine floor upstairs, expanded into the warehouse that adjoins our current building and then taken on an additional warehouse across the yard.

Having the right systems in place meant each expansion was manageable, rather than becoming increasingly complex or disruptive.

Altogether, we now have around 75,000 sq. ft. of warehouse space, including mezzanine space that we’ ve not fully utilised yet, which gives us room to keep scaling as demand grows.

Why do you think demand continues to grow for your services?

PROCare has been built on quality and reliability and on specialising in wet rooms, accessible bathrooms and adaptive kitchens that help people live safely at home. We’ ve grown from a small local operation to one of the UK’ s leading manufacturers and suppliers in our niche, working with housing associations, local authorities and contractors nationwide.

In a sector where consistency is critical, longterm customers tend to stay with suppliers they trust to deliver accurately, day in and day out. Maintaining high service levels, even during challenging periods, has helped strengthen those relationships, and we’ ve continued to expand our presence, particularly in the south of England, while sustaining strong warehouse accuracy and performance.

What’ s next for PROCare?

We’ re very much focused on controlled, sustainable growth. The priority now is to build a scalable operation that allows the business to grow without adding unnecessary complexity.

We’ re integrating the manufacturer we recently acquired into Orderwise, so we have a single, consistent way of managing stock and orders across the group. We’ re also rolling out the Rebate module in Orderwise to improve financial reporting and remove a lot of manual spreadsheet workaround rebates.

Operationally, we still have room to grow into our existing warehouse footprint and we’ re continuing to build our presence in the south of England, where there is strong demand for our services. With the systems and warehouse capacity we now have, we feel well-positioned not just respond to growth, but to plan for it with confidence. �

16 Intelligent SME. tech