NICOLA WYETH
HEAD OF LOGISTICS & DISTRIBUTION
Nicola, who has been involved in the movement of printed media worldwide ever since
she graduated from Durham University in 1999, runs the Logistics & Distribution
(L&D) department at Marketforce. L&D controls the transport of our magazines
from their final manufacturing stage (printer or outworker) through to the wholesaler
in the UK or the agent abroad. Nicola's job is to ensure that our product gets to
market in the most timely, cost-efficient and effective way. To help her do this,
she has an experienced and knowledgeable department split into five sections.
L&D's Planning section creates the Title Plans using a bespoke IT system called
PALM that produces despatch paperwork and EDI files for finishers and hauliers.
This includes details of any required regionalisation, the make up of the product
(including gifts, paper weights and pagination), and orders for each wholesaler
or foreign agent.
The department's Tracking section is then responsible for putting the Plan into
action and for making any necessary decisions if the title is running late to ensure
the on-sale date can be met. Minimising extra costs is at the forefront of all approaches.
For copies going abroad, we have a dedicated International Logistics team. They
manage freight forwarders to ensure our product moves in the most cost-effective
and efficient manner from the UK to overseas markets by road, sea or air.
Two further sections of L&D help us to provide the best logistics service possible
to our customers. The Information and Development Team provide all the necessary
Management Information Systems both internally and externally while the Logistics
Development area looks at ways of improving the supply chain in a medium- to long-term
basis, both in terms of efficiency and cost.
Nicola comments: "L&D is a great place to work. The operational side of the job is so time-critical that it must surely be one of the most interesting jobs in logistics. We work with fantastic partners, particularly Downtons, whose brand Fastmag is a byword for excellence in magazine haulage. Wholesalers tell us again and again that the Marketforce/Downton partnership is the best in the industry. As for the strategic side of the job, the changing picture of the magazine industry brings constant fresh challenges. It's a pleasure to work with such great people in a job we all love and play such an important role in the service Marketforce can offer to its publishers".