Boots closes warehouses
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BOOTS IS TO automate its distribution network at a cost of 2,250 jobs, but drivers are likely to escape the axe. The firm will replace its 17 warehouses with a similar number of 'truck docking facilities'.
Currently, Exel delivers stock to the regional depots and then on to stores once it has been sorted. But a Boots spokesman says the impact on the Exel employees will probably be minimal, "We'll still need to break shipments down into smaller sizes to cope with [the size of] most of our stores." He adds that the implications of building a £70m automated warehouse in Nottingham have yet to be discussed with Exel and Unipart Logistics, which manages the company's central warehousing in Nottingham, "We have to build the warehouse yet and it's three years away. We'll be talking to our existing partners between now and then."