L E T T ER S
www.ggpmag.com September
I write a regular blog on the Mila website
at https://www.mila.co.uk/blog/. Over
the years, it’s become one of the most
visited pages on the site, largely I think
because I always try to give honest
insight and straightforward updates on
the business and the market.
Of the 20 or so posts I’ve written
this year though, no less than 17 have
been on the single topic of Coronavirus
– going as far back as February when
it fi rst started to become an issue for
some of our suppliers in the Far East. I’ve
charted the spread of the disease, the
lockdown, the reopening, and now of
course the pressure on suppliers to keep
up with demand.
My aim on the blog has always been
to communicate openly and directly with
customers, colleagues and suppliers and
I would defi nitely encourage others in
the industry to do the same – it might
help to create a better sense of mutual
understanding. Over recent weeks, the
dominant theme of my posts has been
the extraordinary efforts of suppliers like
Mila to make sure that fabricators have
the products they need to keep trade,
retail and commercial customers happy.
I don’t think any of us could
realistically have expected the industry
to bounce back from the lockdown quite
so strongly as it has and, while that is
brilliant, it has tested capacity at many
points right across the supply chain.
There are widespread reports now
of stock outages on profi le, glass and
hardware, made worse by the fact that
some companies pushed back too many
orders, then kept staff on furlough for
too long and aren’t now communicating
properly with customers.
By contrast, at Mila, we’re very much
going above and beyond to make sure
our customers can make the most of
the opportunities which are currently
out there and the general improvement
in the market. Everyone here – from
front line sales to supply chain is more
focused than ever on keeping our line
OTIF (which indicates how many items
we have in stock) as high as possible.
I get our daily performance metrics
delivered into my inbox at 6.30am every
morning and they’re the fi rst thing I
look at when I pick up my phone. At the
time of writing, our line OTIF is sitting
at 92.2% and it’s prominently displayed
on our website for all to see. 92.2 is way
down on where we would be in normal
times when anything below 98% would
trigger an investigation.
But, judging by the number of
enquiries we’re getting from fabricators
who are being let down by their current
supplier, it’s still much higher than many
of our competitors.
Mila has the huge advantage, of
course, that we still have the resources
available to be able to invest. We are
currently spending tens of thousands
of pounds on air freight to get more
product onto our shelves as quickly
as possible and we have weekly
meetings to make sure we target
that option as effectively as possible
for those customers with the most
urgent demand. We also maintained
contract terms with all of our suppliers
throughout, so they’ve pulled out all the
stops to ensure that we’ve also got lots
of stock on the way to us by sea which
will be with us within weeks to ensure
that normal service can be resumed.
As you’d expect, we’re doing all we
can to help everyone who contacts us,
but we still assess every single order
against stock levels and forecasted
demand so that loyal Mila customers are
never disadvantaged for the sake of a
new enquiry.
It’s clear that suppliers are already
being judged by their customers on how
they performed before, during and after
the lockdown. I am determined that Mila
will come out on the right side of that
judgement.
Richard Gyde
Managing director, Mila
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