Synopsis
Gain speed to market & shipment visibility for leading fashion retailer in Europe.
Customer Overview
- A major apparel & home fashions retailer, operating over 400 stores throughout the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Poland, Austria & The Netherlands
- Sourcing from Asia, Europe & the U.S. – shipping over 17k TEUs
- Key Business Drivers: Opportunistic buying, short buying leads, rapid inventory turn at stores to respond to market trends
Challenges
- Vast U.S. vendor base inexperienced with exporting on FOB terms was not meeting the CFS cut off, ultimately delaying the merchandise into the stores & missing sales targets
- Origin logistics operations team lost visibility on shipments for “1st-mile transport” (cargo to CFS/port), relying on vendors to deliver the merchandise
APL Logistics Solutions
- The retailer’s buyers changed terms of sale to Ex-Works with an objective in achieving faster speed to market and increasing the retailer’s supply chain control & visibility
- APL Logistics coordinates 1st-mile trucking transportation & manages export customs on behalf of the customer
- Establish a CFS network using a centroid analysis based on vendor “pick up” locations & historical volumes/trends
Benefits
- Accomplished a 98% success rate in cargo meeting intended sailing
- Improved origin logistics operations due to greater visibility & control
- Improved distribution intake planning due to earlier visibility of shipments
- Reduced ocean freight costs by 11% due to improved CBM utilization of containers via CFS
- Lower first cost due to Ex-Works terms of sale and potential to reduce overall costs
- Achieved target sales projections due to the availability of stock
