Online fulfilment specialist Walker Logistics has increased the size of its workforce by more than 20 per cent following an upsurge in the omni-channel order volumes that it is processing at its Berkshire multi-user storage facility.
Charlie Walker, Walker Logistics’ marketing director, comments: “With nearly 50 very different clients being served from our main hub near Reading we handle products that range from garden furniture to cosmetics and provide a full range of B-2-C online fulfilment and B-2-B stock replenishment services.
“In line with the huge growth in online shopping across the board, some of our customers have experienced a 400% uplift in orders since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic. In a typical day we are currently processing some tens of thousands of online orders – which can be anything from an ecommerce basket of two to three items through to a subscription style order containing hundreds of items. And we fill multiple stand trailers per day for shipment to our clients’ retail customers.”
He adds: “We are fortunate to be based in a part of the country which appears to be blessed with an intelligent and dedicated working age population from which we draw our permanent and temporary staff and we have not found it difficult to recruit personnel. We are certainly not experiencing the same labour shortage issues that other third party logistics companies of our size appear to be concerned about.”
To ensure the safety of all workers, Walker has introduced stringent social distancing measures across its business. “We always put the welfare of those who work for us first and have designed our picking and packing areas to make staff feel safe and comfortable as they go about their daily routine,” adds Charlie Walker.
