“Nature Baby wholesales and retails a brilliant range of baby products through their own retail stores an established wholesale channel and very successful on-line store. We used to manage our own warehousing and distribution in-house and it was with some trepidation that we decided strategically to outsource these functions to an outsourcing company.

The driver behind this initiative was that we recognised it was not an area of strength for us and we wanted to focus on our core business. SCS was recommended to us by a logistics consultant as being best in class. Apart from three distribution channels we have other complexities around volatile order spikes through on-line promotions and seasonality, we also have complex packaging requirements (e.g. some garments need to be individually gift-wrapped with ribbons and handwritten cards etc…).

“Launching  The Shopping Channel in Sept 2012 was a complex,  multi-million dollar endeavour, we were very confident in our ability to manage IT, content and TV. However  in establishing the business case, our research showed that execution of a brilliant fulfilment service was a high risk area that we had little expertise in, our research clearly showed that many great on-line ideas/product offerings,  stand or fall at this point.

After assessing the market, were close to making a decision but were still feeling nervous, the name SCS had been recommended arbitrarily a few times from different contacts but we didn’t approach them until the 11^th hour, initially  preferring to explore opportunities with the larger multinationals and people who were known to us through our own network. That said, the contrast they offered in comparison to the rest of the market when we did meet with them, was stark . Impressed with their IT capability and specialist e-tailing fulfilment products supported by a can do attitude,  we selected SCS as our supply chain partner.

After going live, the fulfilment part of our business serviced by SCS remains a stand out performer within the business and a material point of difference. SCS led us through a minefield of Freight and Supply Chain related IT issues as well as supplier validation complexities SCS  consistently deliver a flawless execution of our delivery promise that has been critical to our success. In hindsight, we are convinced no one else in the NZ market could have delivered the level of service for the value SCS offer and recommend them to any e-tailer who has a vested interest in best in class service. With the added benefit of the lowest cost of ownership.”

Rowan Schaff, CEO – The Shopping Channel

“Fusion Electronics Limited is proudly a NZ success story that has carved out a material share of the  NZ market and is a recognised leader in a number of growing global markets.

We were sold on the concept of outsourcing our fulfilment some years ago and were with a large multinational provider who was a recognised global leader in logistics up until 2009. We have since discovered that there is a difference between multinationals and local specialists.

Our experience with the previous provider was we would have up to 4-5 errors some days. A large portion of the blame for this was placed on the lack of IT integration and a proposal was offered to us create an integration, the costs to us was to be around USD50k and would take up to 3 months. This was the catalyst to us re-looking at the market upon where we discovered SCS.

We were impressed with SCS from the outset, technology savvy, innovative and flexible, we decided to proceed with SCS and two key things stick in my mind:

1. The integration was done in 4 hours at no cost to us.
2. It took 6 months with SCS to get to up 4 errors.
   
   

After 5 years we continue to receive high service levels, in the last  6 months of 2013 we have one recorded error out of thousands of orders and tens of thousands of units, and we have grown to expect this level of service.

Importantly I think, for companies looking at SCS, as an ‘established SCS client’ I can also recommend SCS for very stable pricing. In 5 years our storage has increased just 12 cents per pallet per week, we have had no increase in base labour rates, our courier rates have increased less than 50% compared to the market as SCS continually leverages  its growth, process management and technology  to our advantage.

For customers considering outsourcing historical pricing is generally overlooked, knowing a number of companies that outsource myself it seems to be a common practice even amongst multinationals to lure in 3PL businesses like ours  based on price then ratchet up the pricing once they have you in 6-12 months citing a misunderstanding of “the scope”, SCS and clients I know that use SCS have never been exposed to this tactic but for this reason I would strongly suggest including this test in your due diligence, SCS in my mind stands out in this area also which gives additional peace of mind for the future.

Fusion pride themselves on keeping ahead of the market, our products are innovate and SCS help us maintain this ethos in the fulfilment, this year SCS are implementing an automated email alert to our clients to advise of shipment dispatches (with integrated track and trace), a good example of how SCS continues to innovate and help keep us ahead of the competition.”

Glenn Orr – Fusion Electronics

“Before using Supply Chain Solutions we had used 5 other multinational contract warehouse facilities. At the least, they came very close to putting us out of business. Supply Chain Solutions was our last attempt at using third party providers.

Brad and his team have lived up to every word of their promise. The single most important point of difference that sets Supply Chain Solutions apart from 90% of the other providers is focus; they are solely contract warehouse providers and not freight forwarders trying to be contract warehouse providers.

Trust me there is no comparison. 2 years ago I spent half my day fixing warehouse mistakes. As of today I haven’t heard of a mistake for months!! Time is money.

I have done the rounds and you won’t find a facility with better people, technology, service and systems THAT WORK!”

Marcus Allen, Managing Director – Action Sports Marketing