Say goodbye to the dreaded monthly stock take with reliable, real-time and easy-to-access data.

Careful stock management is at the heart of every successful wholesale business; real-time stock visibility is critical in maintaining availability and avoiding dreaded out-of-stock scenarios. Too much stock, on the other hand, can lead to increased wastage and lost sales.

It's a careful balancing act, but a critical one to get right. With technology rapidly developing – there are new solutions available to help wholesalers improve their stock take and enjoy solid savings along the way. Here are three wholesalers already reaping the rewards:

1. Preston Beer achieves £5000 savings a month

Beer, wine and spirits wholesaler, Preston Beer Company, transformed its business by switching from manual processes to an automated stock control solution. Following a system failure, the business had the tiresome task of reloading an entire month’s worth of information. This proved the catalyst for change.

“It was incredibly time consuming and we knew we were losing customers because of the pricing errors”, said Managing Director and Co-founder Tony Oxley.

After investing in a new system, the business eliminated errors and started achieving savings of £5,000 per month, while retaining 100% of its customers due to more accurate record keeping.

“Monthly stock takes are now a thing of the past. I just do random checks on individual items and I’ve never found an error,” stated Tony, adding that the investment paid itself back three times over within the first nine months.  

2. Savage & Whitten improves service levels by 2%

Another advantage of effective stock management is the ability to streamline processes and reduce administrative tasks, which can lead to improvements in overall margins.

For Northern-Ireland based Savage & Whitten, an upgrade in their warehouse management system improved the overall running of the facility and helped the business to boost the in-full delivery rate, improving service levels by 2%, with stocktaking playing a major part.

The data is so reliable the business no longer carries out time-consuming stock takes and, as a result of these developments, continues to enjoy rapid growth.

3. Regal Wholesale reduces stock take discrepancies by 90%

Having total control and faith over your stock take can be of great value for wholesalers looking to expand their businesses. When Regal Wholesale relocated to a purpose built warehouse facility, increasing floor space from 28,000 to 45,000 square feet, it needed a scalable software solution . “We had a limited system for stock control, and sales and purchase ledgers”, says Project Manager Alison James.

Since investing in a solution, the business gained instant stock visibility and efficiency dramatically improved. “We’ve reduced stock take discrepancies by 90% because it’s so much easier and quicker to identify errors, even though the amount of stock we carry has increased massively.”James added. Regal has now successfully expanded its product range, improved operational efficiencies and continues to enjoy year-on-year growth.

Five reasons to improve your stock take process

• Optimises availability: warehouse management is a difficult balancing act to get right – too much stock could mean waste, whereas not enough  could lead to lost sales

• Eliminates errors: Investing in the right software solution can remove the painful, lengthy, process of manual stock takes, which increase the margin for errors and labour-intensive inaccuracies

• Improves visibility: seeing stock levels in real-time increases service, accuracy, efficiency and promotes the maintenance of high levels of availability     

• Boosts service: with out-of-stock situations one of the most frustrating scenarios for customers, better stock management can help to improve service levels while retaining customers

• Supports expansion: the bigger your business gets, the more difficult it can become to manage stock manually – the right software solution will help your warehouse system to grow with you.

Find out how you can also save £5000 a month with wholesale distribution software.

Download your free eGuide: ‘Wholesalers – your essential guide to warehouse management’ today.