With a well-established omnichannel business, and growing demand for its home delivery service, Lea & Sandeman were looking for a robust solution to replace paper-based processes across its delivery operation. With Podfather now in place Lea & Sandeman is benefitting from automated route planning, vehicle checks, delivery tracking, customer notifications and electronic proof of delivery technology. Lea & Sandeman selected Podfather as its planning partner of choice based on the system’s ease of integration, ability to eradicate paper tickets and improve customer service with one simple back office system and easy-to-use driver app.
Lea & Sandeman is an award-winning wine merchant. Having first opened the doors to its Fulham Road store in 1988 the company now has five stores across London. Its nationwide delivery service sees its vehicle fleet delivering a rich selection of both premium and affordable wines to customers across the country. Spurred by a huge increase in demand for home deliveries in 2020 the Lea & Sandeman team decided it was time to invest in forward-thinking technology to help plan and manage business growth.
“Here at Lea & Sandeman we pride ourselves on offering exceptional wines and great customer service, and ensuring that we have a best in class delivery process in place is part of the whole wine buying experience,” comments Ed Hayward-Broomfield, Head of Digital and e-Commerce at Lea & Sandeman. “Having seen Podfather in action, we were convinced it was the right choice for our brand and business.”
Podfather is replacing what was historically a paper-based process. Lea & Sandeman now rely on Podfather to plan routes, collect vehicle checks, track drivers, send automated customer ETA notifications and collect electronic proof of delivery confirmations. As part of the system change, all drivers have been issued with a smartphone, onto which Lea & Sandeman downloaded the Podfather App. It combines the cloud-based back office planning system with the driver app which enables route information to be shared, vehicle checks logged and ePOD confirmations collected and viewed in real-time.
“The Podfather solution has revolutionised how we plan and manage our deliveries,” adds Hayward-Broomfield. “With Podfather we have full visibility of all wine movements, from depot to delivery and the fact that we’ve been able to integrate it easily into our existing IT infrastructure has made for a fast roll out, which means we are now fully prepared to tackle the increase in demand that we are now experiencing as order volumes ramp up for the Christmas season.”
“We are delighted to have Lea & Sandeman join our growing list of Royal Warrant Holders using Podfather for route planning and electronic proof of delivery,” comments Colin McCreadie Managing Director at Podfather. “The fact that we could easily integrate Podfather into Lea & Sandeman’s existing IT infrastructure has made for a swift and successful rollout and we look forward to working with the team, ensuring their wine shops and customers are well stocked this festive season and beyond.”
