FEATURE
Busy - Hard at work at Burnside Distribution .
Founder David Nicholson talks to Sarah Dale about the growth of Burnside Distribution & E-Commerce Fulfilment since moving into larger premises in Middlesbrough .
‘ Like a giant game of Tetris ’
Packed - The Burnside warehouse contains thousands of pallets and bulk orders .
With a wide range of clients and a host of different products in all shapes and sizes , large-scale storage solutions – such as Burnside with its 100,000 sq ft warehouse – require everything to be located in the most suitable order and have flexibility to move goods when a new configuration of stock placement is required .
“ It is like a giant game of Tetris ,” says David Nicholson , founder of Burnside Distribution & E-Commerce Fulfilment .
Launched three years ago , the business started out across two sites in Billingham , facing immediate pressures from customer demand for more space under one roof .
About 18 months ago , the firm invested £ 300,000 to refurbish a derelict 100,000 sq ft building on Cambridge Road , off the A66 . The fully CCTV-monitored warehouse sits on a secure 10-acre site .
Burnside focuses on warehousing , stock management , returns management and distribution . The facility has plenty of safe and secure storage to cope with overspill and seasonal storage requirements and offers long and short-term options , as well as flexible options ( bulk , pallet , parcel ). As fulfilment specialists , they offer a full pick , pack , labelling and onward order distribution service .
The firm , which has new customers both in distribution and e-commerce , has a range of clients from blue chip companies to new local start-ups and everything in between . As such , they don ’ t have a minimum pallet number so businesses can scale up their requirements as their product ranges and sales grow .
“ Based in Teesside , we have a lot of local companies that want to keep their goods stored within the area with distribution provided for them locally as well ,” explains David , who has 35 years ’ experience in business .
“ We also have customers from other parts of the UK and across Europe . The services in Teesside are great and we have the freeport here . A lot of what we store arrives to us in containers .
“ The e-commerce side of the business is growing . People start up at home in their garage or spare bedroom and outgrow the space . They don ’ t want the infrastructure and the logistics of having their own premises , so they come to us .
“ As they grow , they bring in more lines and volume , and therefore need more pallet spaces , so we put more racking up to create further spaces and re-work our pallet locations to best suit their sales profile . Having us onboard gives businesses valuable time back that they can spend on growing their business .”
The facility deals with orders coming in around the clock and the team of six , led by general manager Seb Luder , continuously process the orders throughout the day and night .
The warehouse , which is currently running at around 80 per cent capacity , contains thousands of pallets .
“ We have a good number of bulk customers , and we thought what more could we do for them to ease their logistics burden , rather than solely look for new clients ,” he adds .
“ So not only do we offer palletised storage , but we have also started looking at enhancing our services such as container stuffing and destuffing , product re-packing / re-working , and a de-bagging station for both containers and tankers .
“ With the fulfilment side , more and more
clients have been moving stock into our facility that was previously stored with Amazon due to high costs and restrictions . This gives the customer more control of their business .”
The company uses a cloud-based stock management tool which enables clients to track their stock . Their nationwide e-commerce returns management service includes quality checks on returned items and a repackage and relabel service so stock can quickly go back on sale . Detailed returns data is also shared with clients so they can identify any recurring issues .
Burnside is part of the Nicholson Group , which includes Box Clever Storage Solutions with secure storage facilities in Middlesbrough , Billingham , Skelton and Carlin How ; specialist HIAB operator , Nicholson ’ s HIAB ; JN Rusticus , an ethically sourced furniture retailer ; and the Qualis Collection , an online retailer specialising in solid brass handles , and luxury kitchen and basin taps .
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