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Click on the headlines below to view Larchlap’s recent news stories. From new initiatives in haulage to bumper sales, read all about it on this page.

Larchlap’s new streamlined super sites create greater flexibility and increased capacity

Larchlap, the UK’s largest manufacturer of garden timber products, has revealed its new steamlined facilities that have greater capacity and flexibility to meet customer demands.

The improvements are part of a £5million investment programme to create more efficiency at Larchlap’s Lockerbie and Eardsley ‘Super Sites’, now believed to be the best timber manufacturing operation of its kind in Europe.

The Lockerbie site now has around 2,400m 2 of additional covered space available to house four dedicated shed packing lines and this has resulted in an increase in manufacturing capability and capacity by 50%. The state-of-the-art sawmill and operational procedures mean Larchlap can handle the entire manufacturing process from start to finish - from raw material, through to preparation, cutting, assembly, pressure treatment and packaging for distribution.

Jonathon Halford, Group Chief Operating Officer said, “We have the ability to either pressure treat or dip treat timber throughout the year and have carried out a stringent assessment of all the materials we use to cut out waste. Our product development programmes involve constantly reviewing materials used and we are focused on developing fit-for-purpose timber products to meet customer demands.”

Larchlap has restructured to cope with seasonal demands and has a more flexible production process, including annualised hours for employees. With new IT facilities and software packages there is better tracking at all stages of orders and processing. Suppliers have access to this network to help replenish goods on time for production.

Added to this, a new streamlined haulage system has helped support delivery turnaround and improved supply chain procedures have supported its industry-leading service levels.

Larchlap is reaping the benefits of the improvements with the most efficient systems to capitalise on volume orders and fast turnaround for this year’s peak selling season.

Larchlap establishes new Vendor Rating System
Larchlap, the UK’s largest manufacturer of garden timber products, has installed a bespoke on-line Vendor Rating System to ensure it is able to effectively track and improve its supply chain by asking suppliers to feedback and rate themselves.

Unlike most traditional rating systems where the manufacturer inputs figures, Larchlap’s key suppliers are now completely involved in evaluating their performance.

Each month suppliers input data into the web-based system, marking themselves against three criteria – quality, cost and delivery. This is further broken down for more detailed analysis to include the number of complaints, how many deliveries were on time and any issues that have arisen. The information flow is very much two-way and allows suppliers to highlight issues or areas for improvement so that they can be addressed directly.

Once the data is submitted Larchlap can then create graphs and charts to rank suppliers as per the information supplied. Suppliers can also anonymously compare their performance with other suppliers.

Malcolm Cave, quality manager at Larchlap comments: “We see it very much as an improvement tool that helps both suppliers and ourselves to spot and solve problems the instant they arise. Most rating systems require the manufacturer to input information on a supplier’s behalf and then give them the results - but this does not take into account any important issues the supplier may have noted. By taking this on-line and by asking suppliers to rate themselves we have a more direct communication link to what is actually happening in the supply chain in both the UK and Northern Europe.

“From the four months of data that we have collected since we launched this software to the 21 key suppliers involved we can already see the benefits. It has required little training overall and suppliers have been more than willing to input the correct data and to communicate concerns or issues they feel are appropriate to ensure that we really are working in partnership.”

Jigsaw will service all Homebase and B&Q stores south of the M62. The contract will involve all eight of Jigsaw’s partner shareholders under the control of its National Operations Centre at Bardon, Leicestershire. Jigsaw will also provide some dedicated management at Hartlebury as well as a number of Forest Garden liveried trailers.

Paul Smith, Managing Director of Jigsaw, said “we are delighted to have been chosen by Forest and are confident that they will benefit from our ability to provide high levels of service within an entirely shared-user solution”

Jonathan Halford, Forest Group's Group Chief Operating Officer said “Forest Garden selected Jigsaw because they will bring a level of professionalism that will enable us to provide genuine added value to our retail customers. We look forward to working in partnership to deliver high service levels over the next three years.”

Forest Garden plc owns two of the biggest brands in the garden industry; Forest, an exclusive brand dedicated to supplying value added timber garden products to independent garden centres and builders merchants, and Larchlap, supplying a value for money range of timber garden products into the DIY multiple sector. The business, which has sales in the region of £70million, is the UK’s largest manufacturer and supplier of decorative garden timber products including fencing, trellis, log roll and sheds.

Jigsaw Solutions is the big new name in UK transport, providing national coverage through its eight partner shareholders. It operates in excess of 1400 vehicles from its 31 depots and specialises in the provision of large-scale shared-user transport solutions to UK blue chip clients. Following its launch in October 2002 Jigsaw has grown rapidly and is forecast to turn over around £20 million in 2004.

Starting this spring, the new streamlined process offers a simple solution to delivering product directly to a customer’s home.

Sam Smith, special projects manager for Larchlap believes the new operation that uses a central call centre and instant tracking system will be how all home delivery orders are processed in future. She says:

“We are working with CPL Distribution that operates with eight regional depots. Once orders are placed with us from the store, the call centre is alerted and the first courtesy call is made to the customer to check if there are any delivery restrictions. A second call is made to confirm all of the arrangements when the depot is due to make the delivery. Customer satisfaction is a top priority for us, so we have also incorporated a sophisticated tracking system to make sure that customers are happy and informed throughout the process.

“The new system has been operational since the start of March and has already proved popular. However, we are continually taking on board feedback and suggestions to improve our procedures and lead-times to enable us to develop this service even further."

Larchlap’s FSC Certification rooted in future plans
Larchlap, the UK’s largest manufacturer of garden timber products, is well on its way to reaching its target of having its full product base carrying the 70% Forest Stewardship Council material certification.

Over 90% of its products already have FSC certification allowing Larchlap to track the purchase of materials right back to the original forests and confirming the sustainability of the source. Larchlap aims to have its complete product base displaying the certification by November 2005.

Once all products have the 70% certification Larchlap will then be looking to achieve 100% FSC material across the range. This will be carried out on a product by product basis.

Richard Meredith, compliance manager at Larchlap comments:
“Creating sustainable sources is such an important part of our industry that we want to be sure to be doing everything possible to guarantee our products are fully accountable. We set ourselves the target of having every product covered to 70% level by November but once this is achieved we will be moving the goal posts even further. We will then be looking at each product on an individual basis to take it up to the 100% level.

“Striving for FSC Certification is certainly something that is industry driven at the moment – and rightly so - but with more and more end users becoming savvy about the environment we certainly expect this to be an issue that will be growing in importance year on year.”

All of Larchlap’s accredited products carry the FSC mark of approval to show that it has been verified by independent sources to certify a valid supply chain.