Co-op Bank
customer:

The Co-operative Bank

project: print management with eSP Solution for Cash Carrier locations
business: Banking and Financial Services
timescale: 2000 to present
region: Nationally
services: Print management
eSP
eProcurement Solution
locations: 115 UK Only

Overview

Co-operative Financial Services is the group of businesses that includes The Co-operative Insurance and The Co-operative Bank along with Smile and Britannia. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS) which was established way back in 1872 and today has a turnover of £14 billion making it the worlds largest consumer co-operative.

What sets the bank apart from its competition is it’s strong ethical values along with a commitment to innovation. From launching it’s revolutionary National Centre for Business and Ecology – Advising SME’s with a low cost, high quality environmental advisory service, to free banking and interest bearing current accounts, The Co-operative Bank has always been at the forefront of banking innovation and ethical trading.

The Co-operative Bank is a major player in the UK banking sector, with over 115 bank branches, 4000 employees and an ATM estate of over 2300 locations.

Client Need

With such an extensive network of ATM , bank & retail locations, it is unsurprising that The Co-operative Bank has a huge print requirement and associated spend. Despite this, at the time the bank had an unfocused print procurement system. With no online option, branches had to place orders by fax. This in turn gave no real mechanism to track orders, or for reporting or aggregate print procurement across the wider company.

Branches and Cash Carriers would regularly over-order ATM Consumables, resulting in increasing amounts of capital being tired up in unused stock.

Print being such an important part of their business, The Co-operative needed a supplier that combine meticulous logistics, high service levels and an innovate approach to print management.

A partner that understood print for banking and finance.

Solution

besley and copp already had experience of The Co-operative branch network. In addition we had a solid knowledge of print for the banking and Finance sector from year of supplying customers with ATM consumables, PIN mailers, cheques, giros, payroll, bar-coding, security tags, pressure seal mailers and Point-of-sale print.

Our initial print audit identified that Quality Control of ATM consumable products was vital due to hardware specifications. Luckily the knowledge gained from already working with the banks ATM estate and the fact that we would regularly meet and liaised with The Co-operative’s technology supplier benefited this new project.

The audit also highlighted the time-sensitive nature of order processing and fulfilment.

We built, installed and tested a branded version of our eProcurement solution, eSP in just under 14 days. In additional we provided telephone support for both bank branches and the Co-operative’s third part Cash Carrier (Sunwin).

In order to prevent locations over ordering ATM Rolls, besley & copp put in place a stringent stock control mechanism via the eSP portal. At the touch of a button we can now advise The Co-operative how many rolls have been ordered or are in the network at any one time.

In 2011 besley & copp launched a new FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) ATM roll material for the whole of The Co-operative’s ATM network. This brings the ATM Consumables inline with the banks ethical trading policy.

Benefit

Today all of the banks 2300 ATM locations are supplied via besley & copp’s eProcurement Solution eSP. The Co-operative Bank now has centralised control on ATM consumable spend and the benefit of aggregated costs. Yet centralized administration cost have been reduced as ordering can be done ‘just in time’ regionally.

besley & copp’s relative small size and low cost base has been attractive to a number of high street banks and financial institutions. This Co-operative Bank case study shows how besley & copp is able to respond quicker to customer needs than larger, more cumbersome print suppliers.

Testimonial

“Besley & Copp have been suppliers to The Co-operative Bank for over 10 years, supplying ATM receipts, ATM signage and decals.

The Bank has built a good relationship with this company, whose staff we have found to be friendly, professional, co-operative and quick to react to the Bank's various requests. We have found that Besley & Copp provide competitive pricing and options to assist us developing our business.

A good working partnership has developed and this company is a pleasure to do business with.”

Mike Stallard
ATM Relationship Adviser
The Co-operative Bank

For further information on our knowledge of print for the Finance sector , please Click here or call one of our specialists on +44 (0)1392 477137