High street fashion retailer Next is offering its transport and warehousing expertise on a third-party basis to other retailers under the brand name Ventura Network Distribution. Ventura business development manager Arron Kendall says: "It already looks like we're going to beat the year-one plan."
A "couple of contracts" are ready to be signed and are likely to be announced soon, he adds. Target customers will be retailers with 100 to 150 stores. "Our niche is the smaller chains that could never support a dedicated network, although we have the capacity for chains with up to 500 stores," Kendall says.
The only distribution area Ventura can't cover is refrigerated and hazardous goods. The company has two networks: primary retail - comprising eight sites, 800 staff, one million ft2 of operational depot space, five million ft2 of warehousing space and 200-plus vehicles and trailers and two-man - comprising 11 sites, 220 staff, and 150 vehicles and trailers.
Next has invested heavily in its own network capacity over the past few years: £50m-plus on new warehouses £10m on a replacement fleet and £6m on a hanging garment sorter at South Elmsall, West Yorks. Asked why Next is making the move now, director Pat Lee says: "Now is exactly the right time to take our expertise out to market. We believe we've got a market-leading offer and service. We've got the network.
"The good thing about us is that we're not a stand-alone distribution company we don't have to be greedy, we can go in with very compe-titive margins." Key rivals will include TNT Retail, DHL and DTS Clipper.
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