NetDespatch delivers COOK food service on the web
29 November 2005

NetDespatch web services are behind a new ready-meal home delivery service launched by COOK, the UK’s fastest growing premium food retailer. NetDespatch is key to the paperless order and delivery system developed by COOK that feeds their web orders to an overnight parcel carrier, enabling next day delivery of frozen meals.

The new web service allows COOK to expand nationally and through the website www.cookfood.net, with meals ordered online and delivered to homes throughout the UK. NetDespatch has supplied Velocity Connector which provides integration with COOK’s order processing systems, giving COOK a paperless and seamless order-to-delivery solution.

COOK’s 18-shop network currently covers the southeast of England, where the company has gained a cult-following for its top-quality frozen meals. The meals are collected by COOK’s local courier, Wilson’s Express, who deliver nationally through the APC parcel network.

“Without NetDespatch, the paperwork and administration would have been a nightmare. Now we can expand COOK nationally without having to take on extra staff to deal with orders; NetDespatch has been a really important find for us” said James Walker, IT Manager of COOK.

Customer orders made on the website are sent to NetDespatch web servers, printing consignment labels automatically at the point of despatch and updating APC’s central system. COOK realised that to extend their business nationally would be best served by e-retailing and use of an established next day delivery network.

“With speed crucial to the despatch and delivery operation, we had to streamline the order and despatch process and cut out as much paperwork as possible. Through web ordering and NetDespatch integration between the parcel carrier and our own order processing system, we found an instant solution” said James Walker.

COOK customers enter their own address and order details and using Velocity Connector ensures that this is once-only data entry. Details are transferred electronically via NetDespatch to the APC delivery hub system. Jobs are automatically booked into the network with label details sent direct to COOK’s label printers, and manifests by e-mail to APC for collection and other APC regional depots handling deliveries.