Richard Whetton Email & Phone Number

Melbourne, Vic, Au

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Melbourne, Australia

As Head of Fulfilment for Catch.com.au I was responsible for all distribution and Fulfilment activities for the group, including DC operation, 3PL operations and freight.Catch.com.au (formally Catch of the Day) is Australia's leading Australian owned online retailer shipping a very diverse range of products to customers all over Australia. Fulfilment is primarily based at the very highly automated warehouse in Truganina, Melbourne, although we do use some 3PL services along with drop ships from some of our suppliers. Freight in Australia is of course also a rapidly evolving landscape, we use a range of different suppliers for our primarily B2C business.My responsibilities are wide-ranging but focus on matching the Fulfilment function to the needs of the overall business.Online retail is a challenging but exciting environment in which to work. Keeping pace with changing customer expectations and new competition in the marketplace, taking lessons and best practice from overseas and matching them to Australia's unique geographic and demographic conditions constantly keeps us on our toes. Moreover, at Catch, of course, we like to be innovate, think of an idea Friday, work on it over the weekend and launch on Monday!

Melbourne, Australia

I joined the Just Group in February 2011. Initially the role was to manage the day-to-day logistics operation from the source (predominantly China, Bangladesh and India) through the domestic DC operations and to the store. At that point in time Just Group was only operating in Australia and New Zealand. Early transformation projects included implementing an e-commerce fulfillment strategy for all seven brands owned by the Just Group, sourcing and launching a 3PL solution to support Just Group's expansion into the Singapore market, and an RFP process and change of supplier for the freight forwarding from overseas suppliers - mainly China. I also oversaw a substantial reduction in costs achieved across the first two budget years for which I was responsible. I am particularly proud of what was achieved with the e-commerce business across this period. The fulfillment process was completely reinvented and significantly improved. The customer value proposition was revolutionised with the range available to them trebling in SKU count, the order fulfillment failure rate reduced twentyfold and next day delivery introduced from a previous range of up to a week. Subsequently Just Group's e-commerce business grew significantly faster than the market sector and has since become a large and important part of the overall business.The second part of my role at the Just Group became pure project management as what were three separate Australian DCs consolidated into a single purpose-built facility based at Truganina. This included managing the design, build, fit out, new WMS, and transition of existing business. Due to the size and importance of this project I focused on this as a full-time role, giving up management of the daily operation. This project is now complete with the make good and handover of the last legacy DC based in Melbourne at Altona.http://www.justgroup.com.au/

Nsw, Australia

In this role I was responsible for 'HEDS' a wholly owned subsidiary of Harper Collins Publishers Australia that operated as a 4PL distribution business providing physical ditribution into store and back office order to cash service for both the Book and Home Entertainment industry.Major Clients include HarperCollins Publishing, Harlequin, Simon Schuster, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and MGM.The business operated out of two DC's one of which I set up and opened when I came to Australia. During my time with HEDS I was responsible for the implementation of a Pick to Light DC, and introduced Voice Picking into the books DC along with several major WMS improvements across both sites. Major staff engagement projects also completely changed the culture of the business delivering a customer focused approach and much lower cost base.As a result of the improvements made to the business in this period HEDS was able to win contracts for several major clients whose addition into the business significantly contributed to the profit made by Harper Collins Australia.

Europe

Various management roles in manufacturing and distribution, including operational management, project work, new site start up, and business recovery.