Waterstones has acknowledged further snags at its distribution centre, the Hub, while reporting that it is in "a good position" to meet the demands of Christmas trading.
The chain first suffered from a backlog of orders in the summer, following the introduction of a new stock system called Blue Yonder. There were reports of the unavailability of key titles, including some selected for books of the month promotions. Staff were put under strain as they suffered abuse from frustrated customers.
Kate Skipper, chief operating officer, released the following statement:
"Waterstones continues to have intermittent issues with the Blue Yonder implementation at the Hub. At the end of October, Blue Yonder engineers released a new element which caused significant instability in the system and disruption to processing. Volumes were depressed whilst they corrected their mistake. The system has largely been stable over the last week, with an important fix successfully deployed last week which has had an immediate, positive impact. However, the unreliability of the system over the period caused numerous knock-on effects, adversely impacting normal operation of the Hub. The daily level of outbound deliveries is now consistently higher which we aim to maintain. Beyond this, we are focused on the long-term effectiveness of the system and have lined up additional IT resource to ensure that this advances quickly in the new year.
"We are especially grateful for the continued direct deliveries to our shops by publishers. They are keeping our shops well stocked, with presently a significantly higher level of stock in our shops than in previous years. We are also grateful to our booksellers who are working very hard to deal efficiently with these higher stock levels and the very elevated volumes of deliveries. Together these have put us in a good position to meet what is certain to be a very late, and very busy Christmas season.
"Sales look to be reasonable, allowing for the inherent lateness with which sales will build this year. The timing of Christmas Day on a Sunday, of course, pushes sales more heavily than usual towards the last week, added to which the distractions of a packed World Cup schedule in the early weeks of the tournament will exacerbate the compression of sales into the final period."
