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Northwich Schoolwear Case Study

Northwich Schoolwear needed stock control that matched how they actually operate. We built it.

  • Replaced Shopify/Stocky with a purpose-built stock management system
  • Full replenishment workflow from minimum levels to approved purchase orders
  • Built for future Shopify and supplier integration

A bespoke operational system, built around the business rather than around a platform.

THE PROJECT

Northwich Schoolwear supply embroidered school uniforms to multiple schools across the UK, managing parent products from brands like David Luke and Surridge alongside school-specific child SKUs for embroidered polos, hoodies, bags, and PE kits.

Their existing setup relied on Shopify and Stocky for stock management. The problem was not the product data itself, it was everything around it. The team had no clear workflow for identifying what needed reordering, no way to track what was already on order before creating new purchase orders, and no practical tool for managing the parent and child SKU relationships that sit at the heart of how the business operates.

THE STORY

We built a full-stack web application to replace the manual stock management workflow entirely.

The architecture was designed from the start with future Shopify integration in mind.

At the core of the app is a stock control table covering every SKU the business manages. Staff can search and filter across in house stock, supplier stock, min and max levels, on-order quantities, status, and the parent/child relationships between plain base products and embroidered school variants.

The fill shelves workflow takes the guesswork out of replenishment. The system identifies products that have dropped below minimum levels, lets the team fill to minimum or maximum quantities, approve or reject individual lines, and generate a purchase order directly from the result.

Purchase orders move through draft, approved, sent, and complete statuses. Each PO has a detail popup showing line-level information, a clean numbering format, and a CSV export for sending to suppliers.

A goods-in screen handles receiving against open purchase orders and updates stock levels automatically.

We also built a school directory giving an overview of each school with direct links to their associated SKUs and counts of low and out-of-stock items. Stock valuation gives a live view of the value held at BUCC based on quantity and cost price.

For non-technical staff, we built an Excel import and export workflow. Users download current SKU data, amend it in a familiar format, and upload it back. The importer handles both new SKUs and updates to existing ones automatically.

Products can also be edited directly from the stock screen without going through a spreadsheet. SKU deletion is guarded at the database level so that any product with child SKUs or purchase order history cannot be removed accidentally.

THE OUTCOME

Northwich Schoolwear moved from a stock management process that had outgrown its tools to a purpose-built system that reflects how the business actually operates.

Staff now have a clear, workflow-driven process for replenishment, purchasing, and goods-in. Purchase orders are tracked from creation through to completion. Stock levels are informed by what the business physically holds at BUCC, not by theoretical totals across locations.

Structurally, the system is built to grow. NWSW stock and supplier stock are separated at the data level, child SKUs are cleanly linked to parent SKUs, and the architecture is ready for Shopify stock, David Luke supplier feeds, and future warehouse data to be integrated without rewriting the core logic.

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