Reliability is just as important as speed when it comes to Screwfix’s online fulfilment strategy, writes Ben Sillitoe.

Delivering on promises and providing convenience is just as important as speed – if not more so – when it comes to online fulfilment, according Ian Howe, Supply Chain and Logistics Director at Screwfix.

“Customers always want things even faster but there’s something beyond speed,” he explained during a live interview on the second day of Retail Technology Show (RTS) 2026 last week.

“To a certain extent it doesn’t matter what the proposition is you’re offering, you just have to make sure it’s absolutely reliable for them.”

It’s an interesting notion from Howe, who oversaw the launch of rapid delivery service Screwfix Sprint in August 2021, which promises to get products to a customer within 60minutes of their order, and works for a retailer that provides one-minute Click & Collect. Not to mention, according to the director, the record delivery time for Screwfix since launching Sprint in the aftermath of the Covid crisis is just four minutes.

However, Howe says the focus is on Screwfix’s predominantly trade customer, who simply need to know the retailer is going to do what it says it will.

“For trade customers, time is money – time in our stores or doing something off the tools is time they’re not earning money themselves,” Howe explained. “Our job is to make their jobs easier so they can rely on us to do the thinking and get the right products in the right place at the right time.”

Howe spent his session detailing some of the fundamentals a retailer needs to have in place to achieve that ambition.

Acknowledging Screwfix is “not perfect”, despite its growing reputation as a leading proponent of online fulfilment and commending his predecessors for building “very strong foundations” prior to his arrival at the business in summer 2020, he said: “We have strong fulfilment and distribution network and strong links into our stores and we link it back into what our customers are telling us about experience.”

Howe emphasised that a strong supply chain is only as good as how connected the business is across different departments. It requires a “fully collaborative cross functional business to make it work – you can’t do it in isolation,” he stated.

“When you talk about availability of stock in stores – one of the fundamentals is what range are we deciding to put in in the first place and how are we making sure that is fulfilling the missions you want to provide customers,” he said, highlighting how multiple departments must align to make this happen successfully.

Howe suggested supply chain departments traditionally are “quite insular, data led and love a good spreadsheet”, but urged those in this function of retail to collaborate more with other areas of the business.

“If you operate a supply chain ‘in a box’ it’s only ever going to do what you decide it’s doing, as opposed to being collaborative across the whole organisation,” he said, adding all departments must show humility and respect for other functions across the retail operation.

He used the Sprint service as an example to underline that point. “From the customer first engaging on the app to the point it gets delivered, you have to think all the way through.”

“Visibility of inventory is absolutely critical to what we do – we have a single source of truth for all our inventory. Having it in siloed systems can’t exist if you’re offering one-minute click & collect or delivery in 20minutes.”

In terms of managing demand and improving forecasting, he said the Screwfix team is “learning every day”, but urged retailers to “get to the root cause” of the problem when things go wrong. Just addressing the symptoms will bring more trouble down the line, he warned.

“The more you can get to root cause and not just respond to symptoms, the more success you’ll see on a long-term basis,” he concluded.