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www.bifa.org SPECIALIST SERVICES AWARD NNR's contract logistics


facility in Wellingborough went live in August 2020


The NNR formula for making magic happen


NNR Global Logistics UK proved in 2020 that the ability to manage business through a crisis relies on experience, pragmatism and the will to thrive in the face of adversity. By enhancing its offering under challenging circumstances, NNR


won both new customers and the BIFA Specialist Services Award


Having successfully established a new contract logistics facility in Northampton in 2015, NNR began planning its next step in


2019 – a brand-new contract logistics facility in Wellingborough, four times larger than the one in Northampton. Despite the many challenges of COVID-19, operations at Wellingborough began in August 2020. Lee Griffiths, managing director at NNR,


described the company as “a contemporary organisation that is focused on retaining old- fashioned values”, with an appetite for digitisation that enabled it to adapt its software according to specific customer requirements. For its first client at Wellingborough, NNR


developed a series of application programming interfaces (APIs) that facilitate the direct receipt of orders online, providing the order detail and picking requirements. The API also collects the outbound shipment


tracking number and sends it to the customer electronically – and it allows order data to be exported from NNR’s warehouse management system directly into a variety of courier systems. The automation of shipping label production, and the tracking data upload, improved both accuracy and efficiency.


8 The right blend


NNR Global Logistics UK has a strong belief in going back to old-fashioned values. Lee Griffiths explained: “We are a


Japanese-owned company – our parent is Nishitetsu Group – so there is a big focus on traditional service. We aim to provide accurate information, pragmatic advice and creative solutions, call back as promised, respond swiftly to messages, and approach


The Specialist Services Award was presented by Transaid. Founded by Save the Children, The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), and its Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, the international development organisation shares 25 years’ worth of expertise in 23 countries with partners and governments – empowering people to build the skills they need to transform their own lives.


In addition, the system allowed individual


customers to create unique gift sets, along with a personalised gift card, when ordering online. For another customer, a specific API was


coupled with a Wi-Fi enabled, handset-based picking process to scale-up order processing. Griffiths said: “The acceleration of digitisation


continued despite lockdowns and the management of the pandemic. We held business continuity plan meetings five days a week for several months, and our technology team developed the IT required to connect customers and drive our e-commerce expansion. We could not have done it without those advances in technology.


Pragmatic approach “We took a pragmatic approach to ‘what if’; we sent 25% of our people to work from home in January 2020 – right at the beginning of COVID- 19 – so we were able to iron out any bugs before things got really tough.” By mid-2020, 80% of NNR staff were working


from home. Nonetheless, said Griffiths: “We successfully moved to a new warehouse with new customer-facing technology that had to link with our customers and their customers.” “We achieved that in the middle of a lockdown


and plugged in all the necessary technology, even though the construction industry was also shut down at that time, and managed to go live in August as planned. “It is all about our spirit – our people are able


and willing to work hard to provide specialist services and not fail our customers.”


everything with a can-do attitude. “The average tenure among our staff is


eight years; it is easier to instil this mindset when you have that length of service. At the same time we welcome fresh ideas, new people and innovation in order to get the right blend. As well as old meets new, we have East meets West – and that is where the magic happens. The Western approach brings innovation to complement the strong and steady Eastern mindset.”


April 2021


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