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Klondyke Garden Centres

Klondyke Garden Centres 08/09/2011

Klondyke is the UK’s largest family owned, independent group of garden centres located across the North or England, Scotland and Wales. The six Scottish based centres trade as Klondyke Garden Centres, with the 19 garden centres in England and Wales operating under the name of Strikes Garden Centres. SWR manages the waste contract for all sites nationwide.

As well as plants and gardening equipment, each site also sells a range of homeware products from indoor and outdoor furniture to crafts, clothes and gifts, all of which generates varied waste types and quantities across the sites.

The issues

Cost The main issue for Klondyke was the rising cost of waste disposal. In the past 5 years, the cost of sending waste to landfill has increased by 250% from £16 per tonne to £56 per tonne, a significant amount for any business producing considerable amounts of waste.

With the majority of rubbish being disposed of as general waste and therefore being sent to landfill, Klondyke were particularly exposed to these escalating costs.

Multiple Vendors Waste contractors tend to manage only a small number of waste streams as part of their service. As such with many waste streams across multiple sites, it was inevitable that numerous waste contractors would have to be used to provide Klondyke with a complete waste service. This meant a decentralised / site level process for handling waste bills and little visibility of what happens to waste after collection.

‘Green business’ and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) are moving higher up the agenda for businesses today and focus on recycling is a principal part of this. Klondyke was therefore keen to find a solution that would reduce their costs and simplify the waste management process whilst improving recycling performance.

SWR’s good track record with multi-site garden centres across the UK gave Klondyke the confidence that a successful solution could be found.

SWR Solution

The key to resolving Klondyke’s issues was addressing what happened to waste from the moment it was created. By implementing a system to encourage waste segregation at source, recycling potential could be dramatically increased. The new process would be complimented with staff communications and onsite training to ensure the processes and their importance were understood.

Klondyke gave SWR full disclosure of all current waste costs and services, analysis of which allowed SWR to devise a new, cost effective plan of waste handling via carefully selected local contractors. End to end administration of the new waste contracts including day to day communication with suppliers and invoicing, would happen centrally under SWR, removing the burden from individuals assigned to the role at the 19 individual sites.

Because SWR had full visibility of what was happening to the waste at each site, they were able to produce regular reports for Klondyke demonstrating its improved recycling rates, broken down by waste stream. This information would be of interest to staff, customers and other stakeholders.

The Outcome

Cost savings in the region of 13%
Recycling performance has more than doubled, with 66% of all waste now being recycled on average each month
A straightforward new method of waste administration managed by SWR
Green credentials demonstrated through regular reporting

Testimonial

“SWR have provided us with a waste management solution that has greatly improved our recycling and has also reduced our costs.

We get on with doing what we are good at and leave SWR to do what they are good at. I am very happy with the service.”

David Yardley, Group Operations Director, Klondyke Group Ltd

Dobbies Garden Centres

Dobbies is one of the largest garden centre retail groups in the UK.

With a well-established history dating back to 1865, Dobbies boasts 25 stores across Scotland and England, all of which now employ SWR to manage the multiple waste streams being produced on site.

The Issues

Prior to engaging with SWR, Dobbies encountered major issues with their management of waste provision and recycling. They were aware that there were troubling inefficiencies, namely:

Administration

Having many different waste streams across multiple sites and over twenty different waste contractors managing their waste, Dobbies had to invest considerable time in handling a mountain of invoices, the accuracy of which was impossible to determine given the complexity of the services they were receiving. All in all the processing of invoices was an administrative nightmare.

Poor customer- supplier relationships

Another problem was the varying levels of service that Dobbies received from the different contractors. The efficiency and adaptability of service was very much dependent on the time and effort demanded of Dobbies staff to cultivate working relationships with their waste contractors.

Recycling

Dobbies is not just a traditional retail garden store. It also has on site restaurants and pet centres. It is therefore unsurprising that the chain produces multiple and varied waste streams. Dobbies were very much aware that a significant amount of waste was not being disposed of effectively. In particular, apart from cardboard and plant pots which where baled on site, all other waste was disposed of in skips as general waste. This meant recycling levels were low.

The provisions laid out by Dobbies’ previous waste contractors had few options in terms of segregation. Staff members at Dobbies were not provided with the means to internally segregate the waste and this made it very difficult for them to recycle effectively. For a business operating in such an environmentally conscious industry, this was not a desirable position to be in.

The SWR Solution

Dobbies employed the services of SWR to review and solve these issues speedily, with an ambitious target of 65% recycling across all sites within the first year, rising to 85% over the next three years. By aiming high with the recycling targets the management team aimed to fulfill its clients’ expectations of a modern, environmentally responsible company.

Firstly, SWR carried out an in depth analysis across a number of Dobbies stores to ascertain the types of waste being produced, the quantities, and where it was ending up. With this information SWR customised an efficient, cost effective system to increase recycling and simplify the process of managing waste whilst making the transition for staff and management as easy as possible.

Consolidated service

Handling of the entire waste process from day-to-day issues such as communicating with contractors through to dealing with billing was centralised to one point of contact within SWRs customer services team who know and understand the requirements of each individual site. As such, simple and effective management of waste at each location was guaranteed and the time and bother associated with waste administration was removed from Dobbies. This means Dobbies now only have to communicate with one company, SWR, for all waste issues, meaning a great working relationship has developed between the two companies.

Invoicing and cost control

The SWR model uses a service fees agreement to restrict the fluctuating costs of providing waste services. This is an effective cost control system that aims to include all of their clients’ requirements within one service fee, and is regularly reviewed by service managers. Clients also have a volume allowance included in the service fee. A straightforward invoicing system is greatly appreciated by Dobbies staff, and the system ensures complete cost transparency, essential for every business.

Waste segregation at source

SWR identified that wood, metal, plastic wrapping, glass and plastic could be easily segregated at the point of disposal, through use of suitable storage containers and clear communication to staff of how to effectively segregate waste and why it is so important.

Monitoring recycling progress

SWR also offer Dobbies a waste reporting system that enables both parties to efficiently monitor progress towards recycling targets. The system enables the management team to easily ascertain where further improvements can be made, and is therefore a key tool in increasing recycling and reducing costs.

Revenue generation

The SWR team acknowledges that waste is much more than rubbish and that material produced and disposed of can have an intrinsic value. If a site produces enough of certain materials, SWR can enable the customer to generate a revenue stream through efficient waste management.

“SWR offered a service that allowed us to dramatically improve our recycling and reduce our costs.”

James Barnes CEO Dobbies

The Results

After just six months, the average recycling rate across the group is 63%.
SWR is on target to meet the first year objective of 65% recycling. As well as a reduction in valuable time spent on managing their waste provisions, Dobbies has benefited from considerable cost savings.
In addition to reducing the costs of waste disposal for Dobbies, SWR have procured additional revenue from the sale of recyclable materials.

As testament to the ease of the transition to the SWR system, the management of Dobbies in Ayr said:

“SWR have been a great support to Ayr over the past six months, their staff are helpful and seem to have a very “can-do” attitude. Any time we have approached them they have helped us out and on most occasions give us the solution to our problem. Both our restaurant and our store yard have never looked so good. A great company and a big well done from Ayr.”

James Barnes, CEO at Dobbies, commented on the benefits of working with SWR:

“SWR offered a service that allowed us to dramatically improve our recycling and reduce our costs. They worked with Dobbies staff to introduce procedures that increased segregation and this significantly cut the amount of waste we send to landfill. Our team are pleased with the results.”

The new system of waste management implemented by SWR at Dobbies shows just how cost effective it is to be environmentally responsible.