By getting Geodis BM to handle its home deliveries from its five Lyon outlets, Castorama has halved deadlines and gained in flexibility.

It isn’t easy for a DIY superstore to deliver concrete blocks, sand and cupboard doors to people’s homes! Castorama soon found this out when it left each store to manage its own deliveries, especially in the high season: workdays lasting from 7 am to 8 pm, efforts to find back-up drivers, delivery rounds upset when people are off sick and vehicles break down, etc. "Furthermore, our delivery times were two to three weeks", points out Christian Collard, management controller for the Rhône region, "whereas we wanted to offer a competitive quality of service."

Impact on stores’ turnover
If Geodis BM was prepared to branch out into this new field, it was because it already made deliveries to Castorama’s regional stores from its Lyon-Corbas hub. All it needs to do now is to return from the stores with goods, which are then delivered from the hub. The stores send data on customers, references and quantities via an Internet portal. An administrative assistant and operations assistant then call the customers and fix appointments with them.

After just one year of operation, Castorama is full of praise for the service: "Average delivery times have been slashed to just three to five days", enthuses Christian Collard. "The store managers are delighted and we barely get any complaints from customers. I think this excellent level of service helped to achieve the very good turnover the stores made this spring."