Established in the 1990s, Charles Stamper is a family-run fruit, veg and grocery business that started from humble beginnings - running a fruit and veg stall to locals from the back of their home in Edinburgh.

Today, Charles Stamper has grown considerably. They now run a fleet of 10 vehicles; delivering groceries to businesses, hotels, restaurants, and canteens all throughout Edinburgh and the Lothian

As they have grown, Charles Stamper have proudly remained as a family business, with Wholesale Manager, Ross Stamper, being involved in the business for as long as he can remember.

Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 and the lockdown, Charles Stamper quickly faced some considerable challenges. Many of the businesses they delivered to were closing down temporarily, meaning Charles Stamper had to act fast and address their business model to keep their business running successfully.

The family at Charles Stamper quickly worked to pivot their offering from B2B to B2C, delivering much needed groceries to families and individuals across the central belt.

Initially, Charles Stamper were quoted three weeks to get a new website up and running. Aware that time is precious right now, Ross Stamper decided to build a new website himself, from scratch, with the help of his family; taking new photos of all stock, and getting the website up and live in just two days.

The new website and offering quickly proved a success; with orders doubling day to day within the first week alone!

Due to this rapid increase in demand, Charles Stamper were facing order backlogs of up to four days. This meant they had to make the difficult decision to shut the website down temporarily, in order to serve their new customers as best as possible, and clear the backlog.

Additionally, due to the overwhelming amount of orders, Charles Stamper were not able to offer customers a specific delivery date or time. Instead, the family were working around the clock to collect orders, plan routes, and deliver as quickly as possible.

For Ross Stamper, this meant spending 12 hours per week just on planning routes.

Charles Stamper soon realised this wasn't a viable way of working, and soon started to look for support.

Charles Stamper had heard of MaxOptra through a recommendation from another customer, and also as it integrates with their current software.

After contacting MaxOptra, Charles Stamper were up and running within 24-48 hours. Ross Stamper admits that at first, he wasn't sure if the functionality would be the right fit, however after support from both the MaxOptra sales and implementation teams, he learned all about the MaxOptra features and functionality, and found the system simple and intuitive to use.

The ability to plan their routes more effectively and offer faster delivery means that Charles Stamper no longer faces a backlog in orders, and can keep their website up and running; processing and continuous flow of orders from new customers.

Charles Stamper was able to streamline their processes, take on more orders without facing a backlog, and keep an entirely new customer base happy.

As lockdown continues, Charles Stamper have not only found an entirely new B2C customer base, but they are also seeing a resurgence of their previous, B2B customers.

Ross Stamper appreciates there is more functionality to benefit from in the MaxOptra system, and looks forward to making the most of it with the help and support of the MaxOptra team.