Smiths News

Smiths News is the UK’s leading newspaper and magazine wholesaler in one of the most time-sensitive supply chains, operating 24 hours a day, 364 days a year. Smiths News works around the clock to ensure the world’s fastest supply chain operates efficiently and smoothly. 

Capabilities

Smiths News distributes newspapers and magazines on behalf of all the major national publishers as well as a large number of regional publishers. Every year 1.6 billion newspapers and 800 million magazines are distributed to our customers. In addition to our distribution activities, we collect and process returns, supply sales information to publishers and provide a range of services for our retail customers. We pride ourselves on providing market-leading customer care and we are continually ranked as the clear market-leader for service by our customers via independently conducted surveys. 

The Nightly Miracle

This starts at 2am, when the first of the day’s papers arrive in our distribution centres. Our operatives immediately start breaking up the deliveries and pick and pack customer quantities. Newspapers are then loaded and customer deliveries begin. We deliver to over 29,000 customers, including large multiple retailers and independent newsagents. Our drivers also collect the unsold copies of newspapers and magazines from the previous day which are returned to publishers or recycled. Magazine packing begins on the day shift and with a 24 hour operation to deliver newspapers and magazines, the whole cycle starts again with the next day’s news.

Distribution

Our national network of 45 distribution centres work on a hub and spoke system. Our 13 large regional centres process the major deliveries from publishers and then break down and allocate supplies to our network of local distribution centres. As a result of working in an extremely time-sensitive supply chain we meet 97% of our customer delivery targets.

Graduate Scheme gains CILT accreditation

Our 18 month graduate scheme is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. The scheme provides graduates with experience in the operations and commercial sides of our business. Now in its seventh year, places on our graduate scheme are highly sought after and this year’s scheme will for the first time include a placement dedicated to a supply chain graduate. For more information about our graduate scheme, please click here.

For more information about Smiths News visit www.smithsnews.co.uk