Toysrus.com chooses Tompkins Associates for e-fill solution

Raleigh, NC, April 14, 2000—Toysrus.com (www.toysrus.com), a leading online retailer of children's products on the Internet, recently announced that it has chosen Tompkins Associates, the leading Total Operations consulting firm, to provide their e-fill^SM solution for Toysrus.com's fulfillment operations.

Tompkins' unique e-fill^SM solution recognizes that the speed of back-end implementation is critical as growth curves in today's marketplace are both steep and unpredictable. e-fill^SM is a proprietary fulfillment process created to help dot.coms get functional, faster, and allows Tompkins Associates to rapidly get e-commerce clients operational with a modular, flexible and adaptable order fulfillment system.

Tompkins Associates was selected to help Toysrus.com determine an overall solution for their fulfillment operations, including assisting in choosing new DC locations, developing an overall warehouse and distribution strategy, retrofitting an existing DC's operations system and preparing Toysrus.com for holiday season 2000.

"This is a great long-term solution for Toysrus.com," said Jim Tompkins, president and founder of Tompkins Associates. "It gives Toysrus.com the ability to level load demand while also providing downside protection from any unforeseen problems or technical glitches at any one site during the peak season. The facilities are modular and are being designed to allow flexibility to expand capacity as Toysrus.com grows in the future."

In addition to its Memphis, TN facility, Toysrus.com will open two new fulfillment centers in Chambersburg, PA and Mira Loma, CA. The move will give Toysrus.com a combined total of more than 1.9 million square feet of distribution and warehousing space in time for the holiday 2000 season. "We are making a long-term commitment to owning the customer experience," said Jonathan Foster, COO of Toysrus.com. "This initiative will dramatically improve our turnaround and delivery time. It gives us maximum flexibility in meeting our customers' shipping needs."

The new facilities in Chambersburg and Mira Loma measure approximately 700,000 square feet and 760,000 square feet respectively. Each building will employ an estimated 300 full-time employees, with plans to increase the workforce in each center to more than 800 seasonal workers during the peak holiday season. In addition to the new operations, Toysrus.com also announced that it is currently upgrading and retrofitting its 500,000 square foot Memphis center to improve its overall shipping efficiency. The facility currently employs 175 full-time workers with a seasonal spike projected of over 500.

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