At a Glance

• Client type: National mass retailer

• Program type: Private brand development and direct-to-store distribution — portfolio grew from 63 SKUs to approximately 100 SKUs

• Services involved: Brand development, product sourcing, custom warehouse operations, direct-store delivery coordination

• Service pillars: Develop + Deliver + Enable

The Problem

Test Rite built a private tool brand for a national mass retailer and sourced the initial product line. The brand succeeded, and the retailer wanted to expand its product line with tool accessories—drill bits, screwdriver bits, saw blades, and welding accessories.

However, the distribution for slow-turn products created challenges due to the retailer’s existing distribution model. Shipping full master cartons of these items to stores meant each store would receive what could be a year's worth of a single SKU, creating excess inventory accumulating in the store's backroom. Without a system for tracking or retrieval, this would have led to misplaced, lost, or pilfered product. The retailer's distribution centers are highly automated, routing full cases to trucks from their DCs. Breaking master cartons and picking individual items would have disrupted this workflow, creating problem freight, and making the product's retrieval within the DC uncertain.

The retailer needed a replenishment model that could handle small quantities of slow-turn accessories for approximately 4,200 stores without breaking the retailer's distribution workflow.

How Test Rite Solved It

Test Rite built a direct-to-store distribution program at the Flowery Branch, Georgia, warehouse. Factories ship products to Test Rite’s warehouse, where the order is broken down to create store-specific orders. This program started with 63 accessory SKUs and has grown to approximately 100 SKUs as the brand expanded.

Custom Software for Order Processing

Test Rite receives weekly sales data from the retailer and processes it through its proprietary software, which calculates replenishment quantities. The software builds each box virtually before any physical picking begins — it knows the exact SKU count, box size, carton count, pallet count, weight, and height for the entire order before a picker touches a single item. The software optimizes box size by weight and optimizes SKUs within each box for efficient picking.

Direct Flow Through Distribution Centers to Stores

After orders are processed and picked, Test Rite ships pallets to the retailer’s central consolidation point. The pallets flow directly from the consolidation point to the retailer’s regional distribution centers. The pallets are then deconstructed at the retailer's regional distribution centers, where the cartons are routed directly onto trucks headed for destination stores. As a result, cartons never sit in warehouse inventory, and store associates receive boxes containing exactly what was sold the previous week, typically between 2 and 15 items—maintaining streamlined operations.

What Test Rite Enabled

Test Rite enabled the brand to expand into accessories without disrupting the retailer's distribution infrastructure. The program began with 63 SKUs and has grown to approximately 100, adding categories like welding accessories and equipment alongside the original drill bits, screwdriver bits, and saw blades. The program has run continuously for six years.

This model ensures stores receive exactly what they need each week, preventing excess inventory from accumulating in backrooms. At the same time, the retailer’s distribution centers avoid the operational burden of breaking master cartons or managing small picks. Cartons move efficiently through their facilities without entering inventory.

Test Rite built the brand, sourced the products, and created the distribution model that enabled the brand to expand into categories that would not have been feasible under standard retail distribution.

‍