Faro: Changing the face of a retail and fashion apparel brand.

Design and establish a distribution facility for a new entrant into the South African market, optimizing their product spread and positioning them strongly in the retail fashion industry.

Project Date : 2024

Client Overview

FARO is a small, scaling company operating in the fashion industry with ambitions to become one of Africa's leading brands. Specializing in recommerce, FARO partners with the fashion industry to process and sell overstock and returned items, offering competitive pricing and quality products. Their mission is to make sustainable fashion accessible while reducing textile waste, positioning themselves as a key player in the continent’s sustainable fashion movement.

Project Objectives

The project focused on optimizing FARO's rented warehouse space located in Parrow Industrial. Relog designed a facility tailored to FARO's needs, ensuring efficient stock processing, including sizing, classification, tagging, and pricing. They also procured essential equipment like racking, trolleys, pallet jacks, and various storage containers. To support FARO's growth and improve operational control, visibility, quality standards, and distribution to stores across Cape Town, a new 800-square-meter warehouse in Parow was established to consolidate operations and enhance the overall distribution network.

Project Approach

Meet the team to understand objectives and goals.
Conduct site visits to assess space availability and facilitate ideas for future growth.
Create "as-is" building models to identify space constraints and opportunities.
Collaborate with the project manager and brand ambassador to design and document operational processes (e.g., receiving, sortation, put-away, picking).
Define design objectives, operational requirements, and budgetary guidelines.

Develop data models to estimate space and capacity needs.
Work closely with FARO to design optimal solutions and conceptual layouts.
Develop detailed drawings and process flows for warehouse operations.
Set up a project plan to meet deadlines, including store opening.
Specify and procure warehouse equipment; assist with supplier appointments, installation, commissioning, training, and handover.
Follow up with suppliers to ensure timely delivery of equipment like pallet jacks, shelving, trolleys, and storage boxes.

Project Results

Successfully launched FARO’s new 800-square-meter facility in Parow.
Enabled efficient receiving, sorting, storing, picking, and dispatching of fashion items from a centralized warehouse.
Equipped the warehouse with essential offloading tools like forklifts, pallet jacks, and trolleys for quick container unloading.

Installed racking systems to optimize storage in limited space.
FARO opened its first store in October 2023, just three months after receiving its first shipment from JHB.
FARO is rapidly expanding, with two stores in Cape Town and a new store in Johannesburg, opened in July 2024.

Relog lent invaluable knowledge from their vast experience in logistics and e-commerce to our incubator project in both a consultation and implementation capacity. Not only did they go above and beyond what was required for this project, but their attention to detail and personability made working with Relog a standout for me amongst the various service providers and professionals we dealt with during the project duration.