Grenoble, Stockholm, June 29, 2022 – Reflex Logistics Solutions (Hardis Group), a leading provider of logistics execution software, announces that A2B Solutions, its partner integrator for the Nordic countries, has been selected by home improvement chain Bauhaus to support the deployment of Reflex WMS in a brand-new warehouse in Norway. The firm chose the application on account of its flexible design and its ability to manage logistics flows for both e-commerce operations and its physical points of sale in Norway.
Norway: a fast-growing market for Bauhaus
Bauhaus, founded in Mannheim, Germany, in 1960, pioneered the concept of large, specialist retail in the home improvement and gardening sector. The company operates around 270 stores in 19 countries, with a product range spanning approximately 15,000 different items. Its business is growing rapidly in Norway: it will open two new stores there in the summer of 2022, taking its total number of outlets in the country to four. It also plans to open further stores in the coming years. Meanwhile, the retailer’s e-commerce sales in Norway grew by more than 100% in 2021.
Until recently, Bauhaus managed store replenishment and e-commerce delivery logistics in the country from a warehouse operated by logistics service provider Postnord TPL in Norrköping, Sweden, and from its own dedicated e-commerce platform near Stockholm. In order to cope with the growth of its business in Norway, cut delivery lead times, and reduce the environmental impact of its delivery operations, the company has decided to open a new, 15,000 m2 logistics platform in Lilleström, to the north of Oslo.
Initially, the new site will handle the preparation and despatch of around 100 daily e-commerce orders, as well as replenishment deliveries for the firm’s points of sale in Norway. The platform will also store some products from the retailer’s Norwegian suppliers. “Going forward, however, we’ll likely use this new site exclusively for e-commerce operations and open a new warehouse to serve our points of sale in Norway, as we’ve done in Sweden,” said Håkan Asp, Logistics Development Manager at Bauhaus.
New warehouse managed by Reflex WMS
Bauhaus has opted for Hardis Group’s Reflex WMS software to manage its new warehouse on account of the application’s ability to process both e-commerce and store replenishment flows, its support for a large number of items (including seasonal products), and its capacity to handle millions of order lines per year across a wide variety of product types.
“In Europe, other large home improvement and gardening retailers have been using Reflex WMS for many years now,” said Asp. “We were impressed with its flexibility and its ability to manage both e-commerce and store-related logistics flows.”
The application was deployed by A2B Solutions, Hardis Group’s partner integrator for the Nordic countries, which was founded in late 2021 by logistics IT specialists Jonas Arvidsson and Mattias Springer. “We’re delighted to have Bauhaus on board as our first client,” said Arvidsson, CEO of A2B Solutions. “We’re familiar with their processes and logistics challenges because we worked closely with Håkan Asp and his team on a project to computerize the company’s e-commerce logistics platform near Stockholm. The warehouse has been up and running since April 2022. Thanks to Reflex’s flexible design, we were able to deploy the application in just a few months.”