With the onset of the holiday 
shopping period, Roots stores are busier than ever. Which means so is the Distribution Centre, the vital link between the manufacturing and the retail and wholesale sides of Roots
You can design the best product in the world; you can manufacture it beautifully; you can give it a fair, attractive price; you can create an engaging ad campaign around it; you can inform and excite your staff about it; And yet... without one other element, all the above is meaningless.
If a product does not reach its customers, it’s worth nothing. Not only must it reach its destination, it better get there in a timely manner. Otherwise, you won’t be in business very long.
Such is the responsibility riding on the shoulders of
Bob Baker and his team at the Roots Distribution Centre every business day of the year. Especially this month when the stores require a constant replenishment of products due to the huge surge in sales from holiday shopping.
Most customers - even many staff - take for granted how products appear magically in stores. Most people give little thought to how the merchandise gets to each location with such regularity. Not Bob Baker. He thinks about it all the time.
The Distribution Centre, (better known at Roots as the DC), may be far from the limelight but it plays an indispensable role in the life of Roots. As Director of the Distribution Centre, Bob is a critical link in the Roots supply chain. He’s responsible for receiving a dizzying amount of new products and then shipping them to all 150 Roots stores in Canada, the United States and Asia.
The two-way flow is constant, five (sometimes six) days a week, 52 weeks a year. It’s a tall order that entails dispatching nearly 8 million units of merchandise a year, 80% to Roots stores, the rest to wholesale clients. Fortunately for Roots, Bob is at the helm of the DC.
Located in Toronto about a 4-minute drive north of the Roots Head Office, the facility also serves as the company’s retail and wholesale warehouse. In addition, it’s responsible for sending supplies to stores including shopping bags, stationery, gift cards, visual material and other items.
It is almost two years since Roots moved the DC to its current location on Tycos Avenue. Previously, it was situated next to the leather factory in a smaller building. The new facility has 110,000 square feet of space, nearly half of which has a ceiling height of 24 feet, providing considerably more storage capacity than the old DC on Caledonia Road. The new facilities also have a highly efficient system for the put-away and retrieval of products along with a computer-controlled system for the daily replenishment of stores based on an automatic analysis of sales and allocation of products.
Working with a team of 50 people, (not including the many temporary employees hired for busy periods like the current holiday season), Bob is a master of logistics and organization, staying on top of countless details at any given moment. He has no choice as upwards of 25 shipments, (ranging from huge tractor trailers to small vans) are coming in packed with Roots products every day. Add to that the 1,200 to 2,500 cartons of merchandise the DC is sending out the door every day via carriers such as Purolator, FedEx and Green Light.
“We consider ourselves to be in the service business,” says Bob, who joined Roots in 1997. “Among our ‘customers’ are Merchandise Admin, Retail Operations, Wholesale, Visual and Sourcing departments at Roots. They all have different needs. Our job is to ensure that these needs, which sometimes change, are satisfied. Whether it means getting merchandise to our stores faster, improving accuracy, special packaging or complying with shipping instructions for our wholesale clients, we are always looking at ways to improve what we do for the Roots team.”
The DC is indisputably critical to the success of Roots. “Bob is actually running a very large business,” says Roots Co-Founder
Don Green. “He has a huge responsibility dealing with all of our products, including everything that’s imported and exported. Michael [Budman] and I rely on Bob and his team to make sure that all of our company stores, outlet locations, franchisees and wholesale clients are served expeditiously. We know that Bob and his staff go out of their way to try to satisfy everybody. They run a very efficient operation and are a pleasure to work with.”
At the DC, Bob maintains an excellent sense of team spirit. A modest man, he is fast to pay tribute to his staff, starting with his two deputies
Maxine Correia and
Kathy Schweir. Both started working at Roots in 2000 and today each has the title of Manager in their respective areas of the DC. “These two women are a major factor in the success of the DC,” says Bob. “Maxine manages the distribution and warehousing functions for our retail stores while Kathy looks after our wholesale operations and transportation. Together they are a winning combination and contribute so much to the DC and Roots. And the three of us are fortunate to be supported by a highly competent squad of coordinators, team leaders, material handlers, order fillers and drivers.”
Open from 7 a.m. and rarely closed before 6:30 p.m., the DC is a hive of non-stop activity. To help move products around the large facility, the staff have at their disposal 20 manual pallet trucks, four battery-operated power lift trucks and two powered hydraulic pallet trucks. There’s also 1,000 feet of free rolling conveyor belt, and 500 feet of power conveyor to take away cartons of merchandise for shipping. Up to 16 people work on the conveyor belt at any one time. On the building’s southern side, there are six major receiving and dispatching docks with electric ramps that trucks use to load or unload.
When shipments arrive at the DC (whether from the Roots leather goods factory, or domestic and overseas suppliers), each must be first unloaded and inspected. Staff verify that each shipment includes the correct number of cartons (as indicated on the packing slip), that each product has its appropriate bar code and price tag, and that nothing was damaged in the shipping. In addition to the quantity of products, it’s also necessary to ensure that the vendor sent the requested size and colour breakdown.
Sometimes, the DC must also deal with time-sensitive, priority shipments. For example, as part of the Wholesale Department sale of custom-designed leather products for the U2 concert tour, the DC must ensure that products arrive at each venue exactly one or two days before each concert.
Despite the pressure and demands of his job, Bob remains remarkably calm throughout the day. He seems to take it all in stride. He takes great pride in his work, especially the fast turnaround of products.
When it comes to the Roots leather factory, something made in the morning can be sent to the DC the same day and before the end of the afternoon can already be en route to a store. On Fridays, products are sent from the factory to the DC and a special courier picks them up in the afternoon for delivery to six main Roots stores in Toronto to guarantee they’re in stock for weekend customers.
“To ensure that the DC works the way it’s supposed to, you have to make sure that all the bases are covered,” says Bob, 57, who grew up in Guyana and moved to Canada in 1988. “My philosophy has always been you do what’s necessary to get the job done.”
Much to the benefit of Roots, the person running the DC is a man who translates his philosophy into action, every day.
- R.S.
Roots supports Toronto lecture by noted French intellectual
As such, his appearance at the Grano event was much anticipated and attracted considerable press coverage. Roots provided guests with leather-bound journals, made at the Roots factory in Toronto. Inscribed On the inside cover page, they contained the following inscription: “In appreciation of Bernard-Henri Levy, a master of well-chosen words and original ideas, spoken and written.”
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