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Company Profile - NCS
New Centric Solutions - breaking the mould
Earlier this year, New Centric Solutions (NCS) unveiled itself to the toy industry, promising to revolutionise how toy suppliers connect with consumers and to streamline the world of toy logistics by bringing the whole process under one roof. Here, Rachael Simpson-Jones speaks with Rob Fort, Commercial director, and Adrian Levett, Operations director, to find out what their approach offers – and why it’s needed.
To fully appreciate New Centric Solutions, you need to understand the people behind it first. Rob Fort, the company’s commercial director, has spent decades in the toy industry and is known to have an eye for innovation. He was also the mastermind behind Asmodee’s mid-lockdown virtual Asmofair show, which at the time was a truly unique proposition, and throughout the years has held roles at Professor Puzzle, Tactic Games UK and PlayMonster.
Rob’s early understanding of the impact logistics can have on the toy sector was gained when working with a leading German solutions provider in 2004. It was there that he met Adrian Levett and the pair hit it off (ironically, while working on a project for a toy company). Now NCS’ operations director, Adrian has been involved in the freight forwarding and logistics industry since his late teens, and while his and Rob’s paths have diverged over the years, they’ve remained close friends. The idea of going into business together has been bandied about for several years: they just needed to wait for the stars to align.
“We started forming the New Centric Solutions concept in earnest about two years ago,” explains Rob. “Adrian and I have worked with big toy accounts over the years, and we’ve long felt that the pathway from factory to shop shelf is quite fragmented, with multiple points at which things are handed over – and therefore multiple points at which things can go wrong.”
This is why New Centric Solutions has been launched: to address the gap between the dynamic toy sector and the often more traditional logistics industry by offering a streamlined, end-to-end service. NCS’ logo is circular and contains the words ‘The rounded proposition’, and in line with this, absolutely everything has been designed to offer a seamless, no-stress one-call solution. Aiming to offer a global reach yet local service, NCS’ supply chain solutions take care of global freight, customs representation and clearance, UK & EU deliveries to stores or distribution centres, UK stock holding and warehouse storage, and DTC courier and postal services – all under one roof.
What makes this proposition particularly interesting is that because of Rob’s retail, product and packaging expertise, the entire process is actually reverse engineered from the moment at which product arrives onshelf. NCS starts with the retailer's needs and visualises success from their perspective. It then works backwards, ensuring every logistical step is aligned with the end goal as well as timely and correct delivery.
An umbrella company, NCS is part of a group of large, successful and well-established companies. Customers deal with NCS, who then manage the internal group relationships, firstly with Scanwell Logistics, a leading global logistics entity with a presence in 49 countries, and secondly with Magnum Logistics. The latter recently moved into London Gateway, a Freeport just 28 miles from central London and adjacent to one of Europe’s fastest growing ports with strong connections from Asia. Magnum’s cutting-edge, 100,000 sq. ft. warehouse is perfectly located for a responsive final-mile delivery solution across the UK and Europe and just 10 miles from Amazon’s largest UK warehouse.
Adrian has been with Scanwell, meanwhile, since it first launched in the UK 17 years ago, while Scanwell Global was first formed in 1981 and has thousands of employees across the globe. Despite its size, Adrian says there’s still a family feel to the organisation. Its close-knit team is able to react quickly to changing conditions as well as offer packages that are tailored to the individual. By bringing Scanwell and Magnum together, the NCS team has, it believes, created the first and only supplychain solution for toy companies that is fully integrated yet flexible and adaptive – and one that breaks the typical logistics mould.
Rob says: “We understand marketing. We understand retail. We understand the pathway to retail and the very earliest stages of concept and production too. We know that buyers are busy, so we’re trying to take away the most common headaches so they can focus on what they do best, which is buying or creating great toys. I used to work on just-in-time critical pathways for automotive brands, and I’m not kidding when I say just in time: these people work to deliveries almost to the hour, because otherwise their factories shut down and that is incredibly expensive. Our understanding of these time-critical pathways will benefit toy sellers as modern retail increasingly works on the basis of less stock holding and having the right product in the right place, at the right time. Just-in-time pathways can be very important to a customer’s success, and we know from years of experience how crucial it is these deliveries arrive on time. The knock-on effect can be catastrophic if they don’t. Retailers know this, but often logistics providers don’t. We do, and our strategic stock management capabilities and the ability to pivot between various transportation options - be that air, sea, rail and more - ensure that deadlines are met and disruptions are minimised.”
Adrian observes that the logistics industry tends to be quite traditional in its approach, with established routes and methods of working, while the Toy & Game industry, by comparison, is arguably one of the most dynamic and exciting industries out there. That said, Adrian says recent global issues such as the Red Sea crisis and Brexit implications have forced the need for adaptability onto logistics firms - and highlighted that many are often not able to react particularly well.
However, Adrian has always enjoyed the challenge of finding new ways to do things within logistics, so becoming operations director at a company that is poised to shake things up in a major way is a fantastic opportunity for him to demonstrate that is, in fact, possible for logistics and freight providers to be just as fast-moving, innovative and forward-thinking as the toy industry.
Of course, NCS’ service doesn’t end with delivering stock to stores. Indeed, NCS goes far beyond logistics, offering retail strategies and insights on packaging, trends and product placement to maximise visibility and sales once a toy range is on-shelf. Rob says he’s had numerous conversations over the years with designers who’ve created superb, can’t resist products and packaging – if you’re a toy buyer, that is. Often, what consumers want is very different to what a toy or packaging designer thinks they want, and moreover, Rob says a toy’s final presentation is often at odds with what’s required for a safe journey from factory to shelf.
“Rob’s understanding of the toy industry comes from within, and my own logistics experience includes years of collaboration with the board game sector in particular,” says Adrian. “So, unlike many logistics companies, we’re not from the outside trying to get in. We’ve been here for a long time. In the world of logistics, there’s no-one else out there who’s taken on someone with Rob’s toy and game knowledge and expertise and used them to improve their offering within this industry.”
While NCS is already collaborating with a number of significant industry players, names must remain confidential to protect client relationships (NCS takes its client’s privacy very seriously, and so, therefore, will we). Some are multicategory, with a presence in Games, Sports and Arts & Crafts and NCS is also in conversation with various other leading toy companies seeking seamless logistics solutions. Rob says several leads were generated at Autumn Fair and the INDX Toy & Gift show, both of which took place in early September.
“From our recent conversations, it’s become quite apparent that we are offering something that is of real interest to people,” Rob says. “Toy retailers are quite risk averse at the moment, and are wary of changing logistics flows, even though their current ones may not be working for them that well. Our version of logistics is an end-to-end solution that covers supply chain, marketing and retail. The whole lot.”
As NCS now takes its business forward, Rob and Adrian say they are committed to staying at the forefront of logistics solutions. NCS will continue to expand its range of delivery methods and strategies, ensuring that it can adapt to any market changes or challenges that crop up.
“At the end of the day, a happy retailer means everyone else is happy,” notes Rob. “That’s why we start at the retail end and proactively work backwards. We’re taking a holistic approach with the end game in mind and I do think this is something that’s been overlooked in logistics throughout the years. Between Adrian’s decades of logistics and freight forwarding experience, and my time in the toy and retail industries, we understand what success looks like at all levels. Our goal now is to take that understanding and help toy and game companies be successful. It’s as simple as that.”
