Melissa & Doug (M&D) is a US manufacturer and purveyor of children’s toys, founded in 1988, with headquarters in Connecticut. Import Services and M&D have been working in Partnership since 2011, in that time we have managed the M&D UK and Continental European supply chain helping with impressive growth levels and an evolving IT approach.
M&D import their products from manufacturing sites in Far East directly into Southampton Docks, the first Port of Call for ships arriving from that region.
This is key to the Partnership, three vital elements include an in-house quality control facility at our Southampton Docks distribution centre (DC), dedicated key account manager and M&D European Operations Liaison Manager based at Import Services HQ. By embracing these three elements, Import Services can be pro-active in ensuring the smooth running of the account.
A quality control facility is housed within our Southampton Docks DC, a three-person team manage product testing and quality control, allowing instant feedback and decision making to increase the speed of the overall supply chain.
Our dedicated key account manager enjoys the One Team approach embraced by M&D as it allows a single port of call for knowledge, which streamlines the communication process and improves efficiency. The strength of the Partnership was increased further with the inclusion of M&D’s European Operations Manager to our HQ. Key decisions can be made face-to-face in a consultative manner and the overall speed of the operation improved.
M&D use our Client Portal, TRAC, daily for monitoring and downloading in real-time; stock levels, order tracking and POD’s – also making use of our shared document dropping feature. As TRAC is accessible 24/7, geographical location across multiple time zones is not an issue.
The Toys & Games sector is reliant upon logistics Partners being flexible during peak months, traditionally August to Mid-November, where pallet levels exceed 15,000 per week. Whilst Southampton Docks is considered M&D’s home warehouse, at peak times we use both Hedge End and Nursling sites to help facilitate the demand for space.
• Southampton Container Port location
• VAT & Duty Free storage options
• Valuable Pre-Retail Services
• Amazon Integration
• Fast track to your UK/Eire/European customers
• Real time information flow 24/7
• Dedicated Account Manager
• In-house Quality Control Facility
• Peak Season Flexibility
• European Operations Liaison Manager based at Import Services HQ
• Trade Show Support