6 Sept 2023
National Veterinary Services says the scale and complexity of its move to a new purpose-built warehousing and distribution facility has been a factor in disruption.
James Westgate
Job Title
Martin Riley, NVS Group's managing director.
The UK’s largest veterinary wholesaler has issued an apology following delivery disruption that has left practices across the UK without vital medical supplies.
Since National Veterinary Services (NVS) moved its operation to a purpose-built warehouse and distribution facility during the August Bank Holiday weekend, the company has received a flood of complaints from practices receiving late or incomplete orders.
NVS’ relocation to Spitfire House in Stoke-on-Trent involved moving more than 14,000 product lines in just four days, which, the company says, has left it struggling to fulfil what it described as “record numbers” of orders.
Managing director Martin Riley said: “We are sorry for the challenges and disruptions this has caused to our customers and the animals in their care. We have not delivered the high level of service they have come to expect from NVS, but we wish to assure them that we are working tirelessly to return to normal service as quickly as possible.
“We have identified that the issues we have been experiencing are primarily related to product availability in our warehouse and the timing of making these products available for pick.
“To address this, we have implemented several measures. We have increased staffing levels over the weekends and made process changes to increase the efficiency of our operations. As of today [6 September], we have resumed a next-day delivery service; however, complete product availability is still being restored, and there are some backorders to fulfil.”
Moving forward, the company has promised to increase product availability, with priority given to fast-moving and critical medications.
NVS hopes this will enable the company to fulfil orders more efficiently and deliver more complete orders in the coming days.
Mr Riley added: “We will continue to keep our customers updated as we work to resolve the issues and once again apologise for the impact this has had.”
