We are pleased to announce that Ivyline, a supplier of contemporary accessories for homes and gardens has joined Amethyst Group!

Ivyline ethically source home and lifestyle products from indoor living, including indoor planters, glassware, Christmas and fireside, to outdoor living collections, including outdoor planters, furniture, water features and firepits. Trading for over 40 years globally; Ivyline has a wealth of knowledge that gives customers confidence when choosing them, which is further supported by Amethyst’s supply chain partnership. We look forward to working together with Ivyline!

For further details please visit Ivyline.

3PL Case Study – launching a b2c warehouse for Toys ‘R’​ Us

March 23, 2023

Toys R Us UK approached Amethyst Group Limited late in 2021 looking for a logistics partner to launch them back into the UK.

They required a 3PL who has experience in organising, setting up and controlling on-line businesses as this is how they planned to re-launched the loved brand.

Their due-diligence was stringent as their re-entry into the UK market depended on this being successful, which in turn determined the future of any return to store level.

After a yearlong discussion, Toys ‘R’ Us chose Amethyst due to their 22 years of experience working within the toy company sector, and the ability to provide the following solutions:

• Over 6,000 pick-faces of different sizes over a 30,000 square foot area within our Super-Hub in Wellesbourne.
• Record all pick faces within the Warehouse Management System (WMS) for complete inventory identification.
• Provide complete visibility through the WMS portal for all orders from receipt through to dispatch
• Provide up to 5,000 additional pallet spaces for bulk stock.
• Bring in a staff base of 20 operatives to pick, pack and prepare to despatch all of their orders.
• Organise a dedicated administration team to cover all administrational and customer related communications.
• Put in place a dedicated Management to Operative structure for 100% escalation.
• Create a ‘Wave and Batch Picking’ system for time and cost effective order picking.
• Operate to stringent SLA’s
• Source very competitive rates through carrier partners for parcel deliveries.
• Operate a 7 day a week service.
• A scalable solution, cost effective, solution both for the peak Christmas period and also within quieter periods.

Toys ‘R’ Us went live two weeks before Black Friday (after a two week trial/training period). The business has grown rapidly since.

There is now a project to supply a national flagship chain with stock into their top nine stores. Amethyst have been involved with all meetings concerning supply. This goes live in later in 2023.

Amethyst’s record in the ecommerce sector includes:

• Running the New Look on-line operation for five years (before they moved into their own purpose built building); during this period Amethyst created and launched their click and collect service.
• Creating and controlling the on-line business for Uniqlo from the start of their UK presence into an ‘order by midnight and have it in the store by 9:00am the following day’ service.
• Running Agent Provocateur’s operation to service its retailers and its online ecommerce site. This involves specialised packing to a high level to give the end user an element of having their purchase ‘presented’ to them on delivery.
• Worldwide distribution for HiSmile, an Australian teeth whitening product. This included up to 4,000 individual sales picked packed and despatched to  customers on the same day during a Black Friday sale.

Due to the above Amethyst was able to produce a working model to show how the Toys ‘R’ Us operation could be started and run from our super-hub in Wellesbourne.

Amethyst won the contract in October 2022 and have had a very successful launch, Black Friday and Christmas period.

Amethyst is part of Cathay Investments Limited, a European wide group specialising in distribution and logistics. Our specialist teams can move your goods from factory to customer covering freight forwarding, warehousing and transport.

We are pleased to announce the well-deserved promotions for the following employees, effective 4 January 2021:

• John Fletcher, to Operations Director
• Louise Carter, to General Manager
• Nicole Forrest, to Admin Manager
• Sam Woolston, to IT Support Manager

John and Louise

08 December 2020

The management of Amethyst Group are continuing to work closely with the Public Health team at Warwickshire County Council and Public Health England (PHE) Midlands, following 39 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among people working at the distribution centre in Wellesbourne. The company has acted on advice from public health partners to enhance infection control measures, and there have been no further positive cases notified.

Dr Mamoona Tahir, Consultant in Communicable Disease Control for PHE Midlands, said: “The management at Amethyst Group continue to work closely with public health professionals to protect the health and wellbeing of their workforce and wider public health. The individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 all isolated for at least 10 days, with their household members and other close contacts advised to self-isolate for 14 days – as per national guidance.

“Despite measures being put in place by the company to promote a Covid-secure working environment, a small number of cases were confirmed early in November. As a precaution, public health professions worked with the company to arrange testing for the whole workforce, which resulted in an increased number of asymptomatic cases being discovered. We have given management advice and support on further infection control measures, including wider use of PPE, dividing screens in appropriate areas, strategic division of workforce into bubbles which include household members and those who need to car share, improved signage in different languages, use of roaming cleaners throughout the day and hourly checks by Covid Champions. We are content that the management have taken action on all the advice given, including ensuring new agency joining at the start of December are tested as part of their induction. Public health partners will continue active surveillance and to support the company as necessary.”

Associate Director of Public Health, Warwickshire, Emily van de Venter said: “We have been monitoring the situation at the Amethyst Group over the last few weeks as part of our response to an outbreak which resulted in workforce testing in November. We are pleased to say no further cases have been identified as linked to the initial outbreak. This is due to the diligence of employees working on site and the swift action to implement additional controls by the business in partnership with PHE Midlands and Public Health Warwickshire to protect the health of the workforce.”

Allan Fosbrook, Sales Director for Amethyst Group, said: We are pleased that Public Health England and Warwickshire County Council have now concluded their visits to our Wellesbourne sites after identifying that we are continuing to enforce the preventative measures suggested by them following our testing of every staff members.

We will be diligent in ensuring that all three Wellesbourne warehouses continue to enforce every aspect of the recommendations in best practice to safeguarding our staff over the coming months.

For any further information, contact the Communications Team at Warwickshire County Council at: newsteam@warwickshire.gov.uk

Details of our Covid-19 risk assessments can be found on our parent company’s website by clicking here.

Cathay Investments purchases Warehouse One

London 17/09/19

Cathay Investments 2 Limited (Cathay) purchases Warehouse One Distribution Limited (WH1) a leading warehouse storage and contract logistics business.

About the acquisition of WH1

Cathay is purchasing WH1 as part of its commitment to expand its distribution and 3PL business. Ben Chaing, CEO of Cathay says “Cathay is pleased to announce its acquisition of WH1. WH1 will work together with our existing 3rd party logistics provider Amethyst Group Limited (Amethyst) and our freight forwarders PNC Global Logistics UK Limited (PNC). Together our three logistics businesses can offer an enhanced range and quality of services to the customers of all companies.”

Liam Lee, a departing shareholder, says “the deal with Cathay represents an exciting step in the evolution of WH1. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our staff and loyal customer base for their support over the last 14 years.  I firmly believe that Ben and the team at Cathay are ideally positioned to take WH1 to the next level.”

Cathay Investments 2 Limited was advised by Mayo Wynne Baxter LLP (Edward Coxall and Jonathan Clays). The shareholders of WH1 were advised by Grant Thornton Corporate Finance (Pete Terry, Joe Pollard and Brad Seekings) and Knights plc (David Easdown and Pearse Connery).

About WH1

WH1 provides

• 400,000 square feet of warehousing space across four sites including HMRC bonding
• Fulfilment services including pick, pack and dispatch
• Integrated stock control and reporting systems
• A fully integrated supply chain solution
• 57 trucks in its freight service
• MHRA and upper tier COMAH approved

https://warehouseone.co.uk/

About Amethyst

Amethyst has many years of experience within the logistics industry and is a third party logistics provider for warehousing and distribution services across a number of sectors, including fashion, toys, cosmetic and baby goods. They provide bespoke systems and support to manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers and distributors, as well as services to on line e-fulfilment customers. Amethyst has recently opened a new super-hub in its main location in Wellesbourne.

https://www.amethystgroup.co.uk/

About Cathay

Cathay, together with its sister company Cathay Investments Limited owns several companies in the chemical and distribution industries. As a forward-looking investment company Cathay spends time and resources to develop group companies to achieve their full potential and provide positive experiences for customers and trading partners. In addition to Amethyst & PNC, Cathay group companies include Euroresins, a Europe wide distributor of resin, glass fiber and other products for the composites industry; Lantor, a Dutch manufacturer of composite materials and cable products; Marpex, a chemical distributor; ESP, a manufacturer of medical models and optical equipment; Perkins Group Services, a distributor of toys and stationery; and The Original Poster Company, a producer and distributor of greetings cards.

www.cathay-investments.com

For more information, please contact Simon Chaing at simon.chaing@cathay-investments.com 02087225951

Amethyst Group has announced the appointment of Allan Fosbrook as the Sales Director responsible for the logistics and freight business. In his new role, Allan will be tasked for driving the growth of the group and integration of PNC the Freight Forwarding division, with the 3PL business which saw the opening of new Super Hub in 2017.
Managing Director, Ben Chaing, said: “Allan has performed a great job with the 3PL division over the past years showing substantial revenue growth. This is a fantastic opportunity for him to take on new challenges in offering a true ‘End to End’ service for all our clients. It also demonstrates that the Amethyst Group is taking a truly futuristic approach to moving forward with their clients.”