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UK Table Tennis
is the sole authorised importer of Cornilleau and Tectonic
table tennis equipment, as well as the Garlando brand of
freeplay football tables. They act as the UK wholesaler with
central stocks of these brands for supply to customers
throughout the UK. Cornilleau and Garlando are both leading
brands in their respective market sectors.
With 60
years of experience and a presence in more than 45 countries
worldwide, Cornilleau is the largest European table tennis
equipment manufacturer and a leading supplier of premium
table tennis products worldwide. Garlando is a quality
Italian manufacturer and the brand is synonymous with
quality, innovation and design.
UK Table Tennis sells
primarily through a network of experienced distributors and
also supplies direct to the education sector, institutions
and table tennis clubs. They have a large stock of spare
parts both for current and discontinued tables and are
Cornilleau's and Garlando's UK representative for all
warranties.
Towards
the end of 2010 UK
Table Tennis considered their options
regarding their logistics partner. Like many good
businesses, UK
Table Tennis had a sound logistics supplier
but were not complacent about customer service. Having
reviewed a number of possible partners it was decided to
switch to Avanti
Express as the options available from Avanti would
further enhance the delivery service and therefore the
customer experience.
The
process starts for Avanti with
the delivery, by lorry, of the tables into our warehouse in
Manchester. Care is taken with product identification as
although the boxes look very similar, there can be over 20
different types of table in the warehouse at any time.
Delivery
notes are received by Avanti with
details of the delivery address and contact and also whether
the delivery is for UK Table Tennis or one of its
distributors. The Avanti customer
service team contact the end customer to arrange a delivery
date and time. A service that is much appreciated by
residential customers as many work and need to take time off
to arrange delivery. Everybody has had the experience of
waiting in for that important delivery that doesn't arrive –
not for UK Table
Tennis and not with Avanti!
A service
that is requested by approximately 15% of customers is for
the delivery drivers to assemble the table on site. The
delivery note shows whether the customer has paid for this
service and time is allowed accordingly in the delivery
schedule. After the “day shift” is complete the Avanti logistics
team consolidate all the orders for the following day and
produce the route schedules. The schedules are sent to the
warehouse and the orders picked. Routes can either be loaded
the same evening or the following morning according to the
route details.
All table
deliveries are two man due to the size and weight of the
products (a table can weigh anything from 48kg right up to
135kg). It is important that the tables are transported
according to the manufacturer’s instructions (upright for
table tennis tables, horizontal for football tables) to
avoid damaging the product whilst in transit. UK
Table Tennis has trained Avanti's delivery
drivers on how to unpack and assemble the tables according
the manufacturer’s instructions. As this service forms part
of the product purchase it is vital that it is done
correctly first time. With UK
Table Tennis' reputation for high quality
and a high percentage of sales through distributors, poor
assembly work would quickly be noticed.
Avanti Express are
proud to be associated with UK
Table Tennis and delighted to be able to
serve them.
Nicola Waters of UK
Table Tennis said “The logistics side of
our business is critical. Customers are increasingly
demanding in their expectations; they demand better service,
quicker deliveries and trouble free purchases. The reasons
we selected Avanti rather
than any of the other companies we considered are numerous
but include speed of delivery, flexibility and a
customer-driven service.”
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