Business Proposal — Warehousing & Fulfilment Partnership

Prepared for: Priya Mehta, Operations Director, Verdant Goods Prepared by: Tom Harker, Partnerships Lead, Northwind Logistics Date: 4 June 2026 Proposal valid until: 4 July 2026

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1. Executive summary

Verdant Goods has outgrown its single self-managed warehouse: same-region orders now take 3–4 days to reach customers and per-order fulfilment cost has crept to ~£6.80. Northwind Logistics proposes a three-year warehousing and fulfilment partnership operating from our two regional centres in Manchester and Bristol. Within 90 days this cuts average delivery to next-day for 78% of your customers and lowers blended fulfilment cost to ~£4.95 per order. We invoice monthly on actual volume, with no minimum-volume penalty in year one.

2. About Northwind Logistics

Northwind is a regional 3PL operating two automated fulfilment centres totalling 240,000 sq ft, shipping around 1.9 million parcels a year for 40+ e-commerce brands.

Founded	2014
Centres	Manchester (160k sq ft), Bristol (80k sq ft)
Team size	210
Relevant clients	Homeware, cosmetics, and pet-supply brands shipping 5k–60k orders/month

3. The opportunity

Verdant Goods is growing ~35% year on year and now ships roughly 14,000 orders a month from one warehouse in the Midlands. Two-thirds of your customers are in the North and South-West — the regions furthest from your current site — which drives both your slow delivery times and your highest carrier surcharges. Consolidating stock closer to demand is the single biggest lever available to cut both delivery time and cost.

4. Proposed arrangement

• Northwind will: receive and store inventory across both centres, pick/pack/ship all orders, manage carrier relationships and returns, and provide a real-time dashboard with order and stock visibility.
• Verdant will: provide demand forecasts, supply branded packaging, and maintain the storefront and customer service.
• Shared: a monthly operations review, agreed service levels (SLAs), and a continuous-improvement target on cost-per-order.

5. Scope and deliverables

Area	Included	Owner
Inbound & storage	Goods-in, putaway, stock control across 2 sites	Northwind
Pick, pack & ship	All B2C orders, branded packaging, next-day where available	Northwind
Returns	Inspection, restock or dispose per your rules	Northwind
Forecasting	8-week rolling demand forecast	Verdant
Visibility	Real-time dashboard + weekly KPI report	Northwind

Out of scope: marketplace listing management, customer service, and international freight (quoted separately if needed later).

6. Commercials / investment

Item	Basis	Amount
Onboarding & integration	One-off (system link, stock transfer in)	£4,500
Storage	Per pallet / month (est. 220 pallets)	£5.40 / pallet
Pick & pack	Per order (1–3 items)	£2.35 / order
Additional items	Per item over 3	£0.30 / item
Returns handling	Per returned order	£1.10 / return
Est. monthly total	At ~14,000 orders	~£40,500

Commercial terms: billed monthly in arrears, net 30. Three-year term with a 90-day exit clause after year one. No minimum-volume charge in year one.

Expected value to Verdant: blended fulfilment cost falls from ~£6.80 to ~£4.95 per order — roughly £26,000 a month at current volume — while next-day coverage rises from 31% to 78% of customers.

7. Implementation timeline

Phase	Milestone	Target date
1	Contract signed, systems integrated, stock plan agreed	Weeks 1–3
2	Stock transferred to Manchester; parallel-run with Verdant's warehouse	Weeks 4–6
3	Bristol centre live; full cutover; Verdant warehouse wound down	Weeks 7–12

8. Terms

Three-year initial term with annual price review capped at CPI. SLA: 99.0% of orders shipped same day if placed before 3pm; 99.5% pick accuracy. Either party may exit after year one with 90 days' notice. Detailed terms to be set out in a fulfilment services agreement.

9. Next steps

If this looks right, the next step is a 45-minute call to confirm volumes and SLAs, after which we'll draft the fulfilment services agreement and a joint onboarding plan for your review.

Agreed in principle by: ______________________ Date: ____________