KATEM Logistics has been a cornerstone of family-run haulage and warehousing in the UK for decades. Celebrating its 30th anniversary, the business was originally named after the founder’s daughters, Katie and Emily. For much of its history, KATEM was traditionally built on general warehousing, general haulage, and long-term pallet storage. The company built a strong reputation, anchored by a dedicated team and founders who lived and breathed transport—evidenced by the 90-year-old founder, John, who still drives trucks internationally.
However, the logistics landscape is rarely static. Recognising a downturn in the local manufacturing and raw materials economy, the leadership team understood that the business needed to evolve. When directors James Walker and Matthew Chaganis joined the company to help drive the next phase of growth, they immediately identified the warehouse as the primary engine for increased profitability and operational diversity.
To secure the company’s future, KATEM Logistics initiated a strategic pivot toward e-commerce fulfilment, pick-and-pack services, and final-mile distribution. But transforming a traditional pallet-in, pallet-out warehouse into a high-velocity fulfilment centre required an entirely new technological foundation.
The Challenge Before the Change
Before their transformation, KATEM Logistics relied heavily on long-term storage models. The operational systems in place were designed strictly for that purpose. The legacy warehouse management system had been in the business for years, but it was incredibly restrictive.
The old system was heavily paper-based and painfully slow, requiring thick, manual documentation. Processing a single incoming item could take up to five minutes. The warehouse floor lacked a cohesive picking strategy, leading to disorganised stock placement and inefficient space utilisation.
As the company began testing the waters of pick-and-pack fulfilment, the legacy software’s limitations became glaringly obvious. It could not handle the complexities of multi-SKU pallets or fast-paced piece picking. Consequently, human error became a daily friction point. The stock control team frequently dealt with mispicks and incorrect shipments, operating at an estimated 80% accuracy rate. This generated a daily influx of customer complaint emails, creating massive stress for the administrative and warehouse teams.
To compound the urgency, the legacy system suffered a cyberattack from which it never fully recovered. Facing intense pressure from a key customer who urgently needed a modern fulfilment solution, KATEM Logistics had to act fast. They needed a system that wouldn’t charge exorbitant fees or dictate months of development time just to implement basic pick-and-pack functionality.
Why a New WMS Was the Right Move
The leadership team laid out a five-year growth plan with e-commerce at the centre. To execute it, they required a cloud-based WMS with open APIs capable of handling complex integrations seamlessly.
A critical requirement was the ability to integrate with multiple couriers. Moving into fourth-party logistics (4PL) meant KATEM was no longer just shifting pallets; they were picking small items, packing them, and routing them through carriers like DPD, Royal Mail, FedEx, and DX, depending on the product’s value and service level. Additionally, they needed direct integrations with major e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce to capture the growing market of smaller, high-growth merchants.
When evaluating the market, the decision was heavily influenced by word of mouth. As active members of the Palletforce network, James and Matthew spoke with multiple logistics partners who were already successfully using Clarus WMS alongside the Qargo TMS. Hearing overwhelmingly positive feedback from trusted peers, KATEM recognised that Clarus offered exactly the flexibility, scalability, and modern interface they needed. They made the decision to move forward immediately, signing up and starting the implementation process within days.
Implementation Reality
Changing a legacy system usually brings immense operational upheaval, but the transition to Clarus defied those expectations. Driven by immediate customer demand, KATEM Logistics targeted a rapid rollout.
Focusing initially on a single, urgent customer, the Clarus team worked remotely—even building out system requirements while stakeholders were travelling—to spin up a live environment within a matter of weeks. Migrating the stock for this initial account took just a few days, compared to the months it had taken on previous platforms.
This speed was underpinned by a true partnership approach. The Clarus support team was highly responsive, answering calls directly and immediately spinning up customised demonstrations or integrations whenever KATEM faced a hurdle. Once the system proved its capability with the first customer, KATEM methodically transferred the remaining warehouse stock—spanning thousands of pallets and dosens of customers—onto the new platform.
Results Achieved
The operational turnaround at KATEM Logistics has been nothing short of transformative. By moving to a smart, scanner-driven WMS, the company achieved massive scalability while simultaneously improving precision.
The most dramatic shift occurred in their volume. Prior to the transition, picking volumes hovered around 1,000 units per month. Today, the warehouse is processing between 10,000 and 12,000 picks monthly—a 10x increase driven entirely by their new e-commerce capabilities.
Despite this massive surge in volume, accuracy skyrocketed. The stock control team reports that order accuracy has climbed to between 98% and 99%. The daily barrage of customer complaint emails regarding incorrect shipments has vanished, replaced by a handful of minor queries a month. The speed of goods-in processing has also been revolutionised; what once took five minutes on the old system is now completed in about 30 seconds with a quick scan.
This growth has had a direct impact on the local economy. KATEM Logistics has doubled its warehouse staff, growing the team from 6 to 12 employees. To keep up with demand, they have moved from a single-shift model to three daily shifts. Remarkably, they achieved this scale without needing to drastically inflate their administrative headcount, as the WMS automates reporting, stock validation, and invoicing.
Reflections and Lessons Learned
For the teams on the ground, the new WMS has fundamentally improved the working environment. The system’s user-friendly interface acts as a simple, digital shopping list, guiding pickers directly to the correct locations and validating every scan.
Stock control leadership notes a drastic reduction in daily stress. The platform’s comprehensive audit trails capture every scan, key tap, and movement. If a mispick does occur, the team can instantly identify the human error—such as scanning the correct barcode but grabbing the adjacent item—and correct the behaviour through targeted training rather than resorting to a blame game.
The visibility provided by the cloud-based system has also become a major sales tool. Warehouse managers and directors can log in from anywhere—whether on a laptop at home or an iPhone on the weekend—to review incoming orders and plan resources ahead of time. When pitching to new prospective clients, the leadership team simply demonstrates the live portal. Customers immediately buy into the transparency, knowing they can independently monitor their own stock, generate custom reports, and place live orders at any time without having to request manual updates. As the directors noted, the system essentially sells itself.
A Practical Path Forward
With a robust, scalable infrastructure now firmly in place, KATEM Logistics is not slowing down. The company is currently laying the groundwork to transition into a full 24-hour, 7-day-a-week operation. To accommodate their rapidly expanding client base, they are securing an additional 40,000 square feet of warehouse space.
Their ultimate vision is to offer complete, end-to-end supply chain management. By integrating their transport management systems with Clarus WMS, KATEM can now handle a product’s entire journey: collecting international containers from the port, handling the devanning and storage, managing the precise pick and pack process, and orchestrating final-mile delivery via various couriers.
For other logistics businesses weighing the risks of modernising their legacy systems, the advice from KATEM’s leadership is straightforward: the upheaval is worth it. By choosing a partner that provides rapid support and a platform built for flexibility, KATEM Logistics future-proofed its business, eliminated operational bottlenecks, and secured its place in the fast-paced world of e-commerce fulfilment.