We don't want to state the obvious, but every business is different. This means that each business's requirements from shelving and display equipment are different. As you might imagine, delivering bespoke solutions can be much more costly than providing a “one size fits all” option, but with careful value engineering, businesses can have their unique needs met conveniently and cost-effectively.
What is value engineering?
Value engineering is a service we've been honing over the past few years, and it's already reaping significant benefits for clients like the East of England Co-operative. The process itself is simple, but often calls for clever and creative thinking. To kick things off, our clients send us a brief detailing their shelving and display requirements. We then set about masterminding a smart way to meet these requirements while cutting costs and boosting convenience. The result? Cheaper, more efficient shelving and display solutions in your premises. Our chief designer, Giles Martin, is often heavily involved in our value engineering service, frequently coming in to redesign and re-engineer our ranges in order to create solutions which are more affordable, more transportable, more attractive to specific customers, easier to install and more durable too. Our recent overhaul of the East of England Co-operative's shelving is a great example of this process (and its benefits) in action…
Case study: East of England Co-operative
The East of England Co-operative has enjoyed some great successes recently, and our work on their shelving and display units has played its part in that. When the company decided to invest in some major refurbishment for 33 of their 125 stores (including the brand's “new generation” store in Woodbridge), it chose our Evolve range to make their premises and products look more attractive to consumers.
A recent report on East of England Co-operative's growth features our fruit and veg shelf front and centre. But choosing our range wasn't as simple as picking units out of a catalogue. The East of England Co-operative wanted to drive the maximum value out of their new shelving and find a solution which suited their large number of premises.
Value engineering in action
In their original state, the Evolve fruit and veg shelf 's brackets were pre-welded, making transporting them to 33 different stores tricky.
Just 14 of these brackets could be transported by pallet, making delivering the shelving much more expensive and laborious.
So we applied our value engineering techniques to come up with a smart solution. Our chief designer, Giles, reworked the design of the shelves to remove the welding, making shipping far easier and more cost-effective.
The new style shelving we re-engineered can now be shipped in six convenient parts, assembled easily with no need for welding and transported with its brackets and bars in separate easy-to-manoeuvre boxes.
The result? 140 can now be shipped per pallet. Ten times the number pre value engineering.
As a result of this process, the East of England Co-operative saw a 70% reduction in price per unit, making it affordable for the company to order in the large numbers they require.