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Founded in 1998, by current Business Development Director, Mary Fawcus, and still a majority owned, family business, Blue Max Banner is now a multi-million pound company and the UK’s leading, independent supplier of schoolwear.
When Blue Max first acquired Banner in 2010, Blue Max operated in Trowbridge and Banner was based in Stockport so the companies continued to operate independently for a while. They were merged in Trowbridge in 2012 to form Blue Max Banner (BMB) after the company had acquired a 60 thousand square feet warehousing and office facility which has become the new headquarters.
PrimaNet, from clothing industry specialist, Prima Solutions, was chosen as the IT solution to support the integration of the companies and the on-going development of BMB.
The result is a successfully merged business operating in new premises, with a dedicated, newly fitted warehouse capable of storing one million hanging garments alongside a separate carton stock warehouse. Operating from this facility, BMB is using latest technology in all areas of business management and has recently completed a collaborative project with Prima Solutions which has seen the new PrimaNet WMS (Warehouse Management System) developed and implemented throughout.
The Schoolwear Supply sector is particularly seasonal with a majority of shipments to customers made in a four month period from May to August in readiness for the Back-to-School season. In the case of BMB, this sees them shipping over 4 million garments during this period and around 1,000 despatches per day at its peak. Getting this process right and delivering the goods on time are critical to the on-going success of the business.
The new WMS provides all of the functionality required to support this process including an exceptional Goods In Management, Guided Picking, superb Auto Replenishment, comprehensive Despatch Management and a unique Pre-pick, pack and hold facility, all of which is integrated to the PrimaNet ERP
BMB Warehouse Manager, Paul Sidhu, says “It has been a pleasure to work with Prima Solutions on this project. Our Warehouse Team has quickly taken to the new WMS and we are already able to process 6 or 7 times more garments in the same time in some key areas. The overall functionality is excellent, it is very user friendly and the Pre-pick, pack and hold function is the best I’ve seen. Accuracy is extremely high and we are working with real confidence. We are already working with Prima on our next project in what is a great IT partnership.”
