UK SDA & homewares manufacturer · Multi-channel · Fractional COO retainer, 18 months
Scaling a UK SDA and homewares manufacturer from £4m to a projected £8m across four geographies.
A UK manufacturer of small domestic appliances and homewares selling across DTC, wholesale, UK retail (Currys and equivalents) and Amazon UK, EU, US and Australia. At the end of 2024 the business was sitting at £4m with the operational stack working against it: every channel running through separate applications outside the ERP, marketplace fulfilment locked into full Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfilment for non-Amazon channels, no real demand planning visibility, retail listing density at 30%, and 30 offshore team members across all departments operating without structured cadence or accountability. The engagement started as a Fractional COO retainer in early 2025 and is still in place.
What we worked on
- Demand planning and inventory visibility rebuilt. Real-time stock position across all channels and warehouses, fed by weekly guidance reporting at channel, revenue, margin and SKU level (including ageing stock). Stock-outs fell 30% in the first year. Cash flow improved as ageing inventory was cleared in a structured liquidation rather than allowed to compound.
- Fulfilment architecture rebuilt. Moved away from full Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfilment (MCF) for non-Amazon channels and onto the company's own 3PL. Reduced cost-to-serve, eliminated unnecessary inventory movements between Amazon FCs and the company 3PLs, and unlocked SKU bundling (which MCF will not do). The bundling alone opened a new revenue stream.
- ERP replaced. Legacy stack costing €40k per annum in software and servicing, with channel data sitting in separate applications outside the ERP. Replaced with a single cloud ERP at €15k per annum fit for multi-channel, multi-stream operation. €25k annual saving and operational visibility consolidated into one system.
- Amazon UK rebuilt. Full operational rebuild of the UK Amazon business. UK Amazon revenue +40% for the year ending 2025. Q1 2026 tracking +80% versus Q1 2025. Paid/organic mix shifted from 70/30 paid-dominant to 30/70 organic-dominant. ACOS down from 12% to 6%. TACOS in the region of 2.4%.
- Amazon EU expansion. From partial coverage to full EU5/EU7 deployment with every product live across the marketplaces. €500k incremental EU Amazon revenue.
- European marketplace deployment beyond Amazon. Otto, Kaufland, Bol.com, Allegro and Cdiscount onboarded operationally. €300k incremental revenue across the new channels.
- UK retail listing density. From 30% in August 2024 to 70% by Q1 2026 across UK mainline retail.
- Offshore team restructure. 30 offshore team members across all functional departments brought into a structured cadence: defined KPIs, deliverables and accountability rhythm. Not previously managed with that operating discipline.
Outcomes
- Revenue: £4m (2024), £6m (2025), £8m projected (2026)
- Margin: +1.2pp uplift, no stepped overhead
- Stock-outs: -30%
- ACOS: 12% to 6%
- ERP cost: -€25k per annum
What was hardest
The systems work and the ERP migration were predictable. The challenging piece was the 30 offshore team members across all functional departments. Taking a group that had not previously been managed with structured KPIs, deliverables and rhythm and getting genuine buy-in across multiple time zones and cultures took longer than the systems work. Mindsets and rhythm are the work that operational transformations consistently under-budget.
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