Founded in 1984 in Germany, GMG has gone on to set global standards, enabling businesses to manage their brand image worldwide, and look consistent on any media and in every print process. Advertising, publishing, and packaging industries all rely on achieving accurate print results with GMG’s software and accompanying products.
GMG Color uses Vdepot’s services to store and manage their inventory of specialist printers, ink cartridges and paper, and to fulfil B2B orders from their clients.
“We used to use a company in the East Midlands for our fulfilment. We had been working with them for a long time, but we had started to notice that their service wasn’t as good as it used to be, and at the same time they kept increasing their prices.
“We were finding it more and more difficult to get our queries resolved – our clients were chasing us for an answer, and we often found ourselves unable to provide one because our old 3PL wasn’t coming back to us. And our clients see us as one operation; it wasn’t good enough for us to tell them that we were being let down by our warehouse. Their service declined to the point where we felt we had to look for a new fulfilment partner.”
“At the time, our manufacturers were prone to mislabelling batches of products so we often had to visit the warehouse to review our stock deliveries and correct any errors. It was a six hour round trip to visit our old fulfilment company, so we thought this time we should try to find a new provider that was more local to us – our UK operation is based in Norwich.
“We spoke with a handful of companies in the area, until a local haulage company recommended that we get in contact with Vdepot.
“In the end we chose Vdepot for a few reasons. From the beginning they were really friendly and personable and made us feel welcome. They made the effort to come and visit us in our early discussions. Their prices seemed fair and the fact that they came recommended provided us with extra reassurance.”
However, their previous fulfilment company requested they remove all their stock as soon as possible.
“Our previous fulfilment company did not take the news well and would not work with us to manage a phased move. Over the course of two days we had about 10 lorries’ worth of stock go from our previous warehouse to Vdepot!
“From that point, it took just a few days for the Vdepot team to book in all of our inventory and set up our account and shipping services. We went live pretty quickly.”
Laura has worked closely with the Vdepot team through the pandemic, and through the setting up of a new online store for GMG’s business customers.
“We set up an online ordering portal last year through B2B Wave which has integrated with Vdepot’s system and sends orders through automatically. I don’t know how Vdepot managed to sort the integration given how many products and options there are, but it works well! Now, once I’ve approved the order I don’t have to look at it again! The Vdepot system is easy to use – I’m the main one using it at GMG, but when I’m on holiday my colleagues can take over easily.
“We have a better relationship with Vdepot, everything is easy, nothing feels complicated. If we get a huge paper delivery, I just let Jenn and Gary know and they are ready for it. Our cut-off time for orders is officially 3pm, but if we get a big order later in the day I know that I can ask them and they will do their best, more often than not they will swing it for us.”
“We originally prioritised choosing a local fulfilment provider because I thought I’d be in and out of there all the time – but now I don’t feel the need to visit quite so often, because I know that Jenn is on it. I’m only there around three or four times a year now – and one of those visits is at Christmas time to drop off a box of chocolates!”
We asked Laura about how she feels working with Vdepot has benefitted GMG, and to reflect on what other criteria should be prioritised when choosing a new fulfilment partner:
“You can’t underestimate the relationship, it’s so important to have that good relationship with the people at your warehouse, it helps everything to run smoothly. I take my hat off to Jenn and Gary, they are absolute stars.”
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