Following the appointment of David Wright as Operations Director in the summer of 2023, Kelkay has been through a transformation process to improve stock availability. Here, David tells us more about how the team have produced over 2.5 million aggregate bags so far this year – which are ready to be delivered to retailers. 

He highlights the importance of: 

• stock availability 
• stable levels throughout the season 
• a futureproofing approach to activities at the AMES Companies’ Pollington site 

The importance of stock availability 

The team at Kelkay have improved internal processes to allow retailers to buy in confidence. 

“Our service offering to the market is that we will hold a minimum of 8 weeks forecast stock across all our sales lines,” says David. 

“Our stocking profile is there to provide customers with the confidence they need to ensure they have the right product available at the point of sale. We naturally work to forecasts but being a supplier of products where sales are directly affected by weather and seasonality, to ensure availability we must hold stock. Our manufacturing platforms are incredibly flexible and versatile, but to provide security around supply, stock is held to cover unknowns and variances. “  

Stable stock levels throughout the season 

Stringent measures are in place to ensure stable stock levels throughout 2024.   

“Due to the significant variation in the seasonal demand of our products, to ensure stock availability, we have taken a full forecast production for the year,” says David.  

“We have considered the variability of demand and developed a stocking model to accommodate these unknowns. We have also looked at our manufacturing capability, throughput and effectiveness of our machinery, to understand how capable we are to replenish our stock throughout the year and satisfy demand.”  

Futureproofing the approach 

David has confidence that Kelkay’s approach is built for the future. “Our approach has considered the full demand for 2024; we only consider hitting our 8-week service level aspiration in July this year, with prior months enjoying significantly higher stock availability. “  

“All Kelkay aggregate products are in stock, with 91% SKUs within target stock levels. Meanwhile, 97% of Kelkay paving products are in stock and available for delivery.” 

“Our capacity and stock holding has been mapped to a limited machine availability and loading to only 75% of our capability. Therefore, should the sun shine and we happily exceed forecast, additional capacity is available to flex if required and our stock is used to cover additional orders”. 

Further investments into Kelkay’s manufacturing capability are also being undertaken to improve machine availability, output, and productivity.  

“We have a wider multi-year operations strategy, focussed on our quality, cost and delivery performance. Some exciting projects are planned for 2025 onwards that will further step change our capability to ensure we continually maintain our target to be a supplier of choice across the products and services we offer.” 

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