Ark H Handling Ltd

Your fulfilment requirements are the basis of our business model. Whatever you need to store, or send, be it product, samples, literature or provide customer care – we will find the best solution for your needs.

Getting things right at the start is key to keeping them right going forward. We pay a lot of attention to Goods Receiving and our fully qualified team work hard to ensure that we check carefully every item that is delivered into our care. Our on-line booking system makes it easy for clients and their suppliers to give us warning of what is on the way, and we make it easy – no restrictive booking slots or late arrival penalties. We tell you when it’s arrived and we tell you when it's been checked.

With over 150,000 square feet of modern, flexible storage space at our disposal we will set up the right facilities for your inventory management. We will receive and log your stock electronically to our scan-enabled WMS, locate it for optimum production efficiency, and use our broad suite of stock reporting options to help you optimise your use of space and minimise your storage costs.

We have been processing customer orders for over 30 years.  98% of our daily orders are passed to us via systemic links directly via API from our clients’ own systems. Where API options are not available, we can receive your orders through sftp files – for speed and security. We also offer you access to input orders directly to our system – ideal for that one-off emergency. Talk to our sales team for a remote demonstration of our user-friendly OMS.

Every day our busy and experienced pickers and packers fulfil over 6,000 orders on behalf of our clients. At busy times/peak periods that number can rise to over 20,000 per day. Yet every order is picked and packed with the same level of care and attention to detail as if it were the only one. Scan picking and packing (when product is barcoded) provides an ever-higher level of accuracy on every order.

Our fast and efficient production lines can be used for a wide variety of purposes, from collating materials for mass distribution, to building product or sample kits for promotional purposes. We pack cosmetics, wines, and spirits etc. into gift sets at Christmas and collate literature packages for Government release. We even flow wrap packs of honey and decant tea from bulk.

Our Despatch team manage our carrier contracts, held with most of the major carriers, specifically to provide you with the widest possible range of choice at the most competitive possible prices. Our despatch systems are constantly being developed to accommodate new services and the increasing complexity of service requirements.

2022 saw The Ark-H Group join forces with STM Marketing Services, adding the services of a full-service marketing agency to our portfolio. Whether our studio is designing a simple leaflet or a complex exhibition stand, our design and print team will ensure that your product sends out the right message for your brand. And our sourcing experience means that your imagination is the only limit to what we can find for you to support your campaign.

Our designers have the collective experience to ensure that your brand will stand out in whatever environment you want it to be seen. We can even help you to develop your brand values or give your logo an overhaul if you feel it’s lost its edge. The studio will also work hand-in-hand with the fulfilment team to ensure total synergy on any packaging design briefs. And with extensive experience in print management, you can be sure the production side of things is in good hands once you have signed off your designs.

There is very little we haven’t seen or produced when it comes to the world of print. With experience that covers outdoor media, packaging for nationwide sampling campaigns, complex cardboard engineering for in-store displays and globally distributed promotional premiums, you can be sure that your materials, colours, text, fonts and finishes will all be perfect.

Working closely with Ark-H’s long-standing packaging suppliers, our design team can provide practical, cost-effective packaging that will ensure not only that your product arrives safely, but that it provides the all important wow-factor for the end recipient. Furthermore, our commitment to environmental protection means that whatever your corporate colours, we can make your packaging ‘green’.

Our experience in the field of sourcing ranges from a few humble Post-it notes to over a million promotional giveaways, distributed across the globe. There’s very little that can’t be done when it comes to promotional merchandise these days and with our contacts in the UK, across Europe and the Far East we can take care of every detail whatever the turnaround time, import & Duty requirements or tooling when designing a product from scratch.

Our clients have helped us grow – but it’s our people that make us great. We want our team to feel like part of your team and they are all trained to remember that, though they may be paid by us, they work for YOU.

Effective implementation is the key to successful fulfilment. We have many years experience of client implementation/integration programmes and we’re very good at it. All we ask is that you share all the advance information you can, on stock, systems and even your business objectives and imperatives. Then give us the time to plan and test to make sure that when we get to Go Live Date it will all go like a hot knife through butter. We believe passionately that proper prior planning prevents poor performance.

We know you want a single point of contact – someone who knows and cares about your business and takes ownership of the services we provide for you. So, we designate one of our highly professional Account Managers to be your principal primary contact – your advocate within Ark-H. They will interpret your requirements and then help the production teams, from goods inwards and production, to despatch and reporting, to make sure that your wishes are prioritised at every step of the way.

Our comprehensive suite of on-line reports is designed to provide you with access to what is happening on your account. We provide you with a window to our warehouse, using the portal where you can see what has arrived, what has been fulfilled and what you have left in stock, at any hour of the day or night. Password protected access gives you safe and secure access to all the key metrics on your account.

There are times when, even with slick and intuitive systems, effective query ticketing and easy lookups online, it just won’t cut it and only a friendly voice will do. For that we have our customer service team. They are there to provide support for your customers, in just the way you would yourself. They are not ‘call centre’ agents, they are a team of people whose entire focus is on making your customers feel valued and resolving their queries and concerns in a fast, friendly and informed fashion – whether on the phone or by e-mail.

Even in the best ordered world there will be queries. They may be long and complex; in which case they will be covered in depth by your Account Manager. However, some queries will be quick and easy, like asking for p.o.d.s, checking tracking details, or simply asking ‘where’s my stuff?’. For those daily quickies we offer you Query Manager, a bespoke and user-friendly customer service ticketing system, which will allow us to keep track of the small queries that might otherwise slip through the net.

Our technology is at your service. Developed over many years of operating in the fulfilment sector, our flexible, responsive and, above all, adaptable systems are designed to connect seamlessly with yours.

Robust and scalable solutions have been developed to provide total client connectivity, for data exchange and ultimate visibility tantamount to a window on our warehouse.  Your orders will transfer seamlessly through our systemic processes, from receipt, through fulfilment, to despatch and reporting.  All our systems are API enabled, with full cloud-based access for our clients.  All are fully compliant with the terms of our accreditation to ISO 27001 and with GDPR legislation – so your data is safe with us.

HeLix, our core order management system (OMS) and reporting front end, is proprietary software, written in Microsoft technologies to ensure future-proofing and scalability.  It offers password-protected client access, designed to give you comprehensive access to all your key data through our client-friendly reporting dashboards.  Behind the scenes, our 3rd third-party WMS software (Snapfulfill) interfaces seamlessly with Helix to provide an end-to-end solution on all aspects such as goods receiving, inventory control, and stock status.

All our systems are API enabled to offer the best possible system connectivity.  We currently integrate with most of the major ERP systems (including SAP); with a range of web-shop software including Shopify, Magento, and Woo-commerce; and with leading online platforms such as Amazon, eBay, etc.  Flexible systems, supported by our qualified in-house development team ensures that, if we don’t already have the connectivity you want, we can build it quickly and cost-effectively.

Any data that is in our system can be provided to our clients as a report generated from the system.  We already offer a comprehensive suite of reporting options and dashboards, which we have built up over the years in response to client requirements.  For 99% of our clients, this ready-made menu of reporting options covers all their daily, weekly, and monthly MI requirements.  However, for those with highly specialised requirements, we can tailor specific reports.

Ark-H is accredited to ISO/IEC 27001 for Data Security and to ISO/IEC 22301 for Business Continuity. We regularly test all our systems and carry out IT-related disaster recovery exercises. The in-house infrastructure team is responsible for maintaining internal and client-facing aspects of the system and maintains exceptional performance levels with minimum downtime.  Critical systems are backed up to two separate on-site locations as well as being replicated in the cloud.  Full details on all aspects including hardware, software, and system architecture are available on request.

Clients can log on to our system at any time to see key metrics such as orders received, in-process, or despatched.  Order acknowledgment and status updates can be provided directly to the end recipient, with full visibility of despatch and tracking data.  For those clients who want it, our systemic solutions are supported by a friendly and efficient in-house customer services team – the human voice of customer care.