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Online sports apparel retailer scores productivity gains

Find out how Fanatics, a British online sports retailer, quadrupled productivity and saved space in the process.

By automating a manual packing process, Fanatics quadrupled productivity and streamlined its processes without changing the amount of space required.
By automating a manual packing process, Fanatics quadrupled productivity and streamlined its processes without changing the amount of space required.

Fanatics is a global supplier of sports fan merchandise including football shirts, shorts, socks, baseball caps, mugs, and other souvenirs. The online retail giant supplies consumers worldwide with official merchandise from some of sport’s biggest names, including Manchester United, the Dallas Cowboys, and England Rugby.

From its warehouse in North Manchester, U.K., an average of 7,500 items are dispatched every day to meet demand from its fanatics-intl.com website. This rises to approximately 28,000 orders a day during its peak period in the run up to Christmas.

This ever-increasing volume in a fixed amount of space began to put a strain on the entire operation. That’s because according to Fanatics Operations Manager Andrew Crozier, the majority of the company’s warehouse management system, including packing and dispatch, had been handled manually until recently. Employees worked at eight benches, packing all items by hand and manually printing labels and invoices on two separate printers.

To alleviate the stress, the company selected an Autobag 850S mail order fulfillment bag packaging system from Automated Packaging Systems to automate and streamline its complex, high-volume, mail order processes.

“Before switching to the Autobag machines we streamlined some of our own processes including switching to faster invoice printers and single sided invoices, which would take less time to print,” Crozier says. “We then approached Automated Packaging Systems for a solution that would automate much of the packing process, while saving space and increasing the number of items employees could pack every hour.”

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