Tech-enabled logistics company Ninja Van Philippines is working with Universal Robina Corporation (URC), one of the largest branded consumer food and beverage companies in the country, for the efficient restocking and distribution of URC products in key regions.
Under the trial phase of the partnership, Ninja Van is utilizing Ninja Restock – its flagship B2B logistics service – to pick up, sort, and then distribute various URC products to key retail points in South Luzon. Ninja Restock leverages Ninja Van’s e-commerce express logistics network to enable URC to serve a variety of retail touchpoints – from big-box retailers like malls to low-volume, small-door formats like convenience stores and local grocery stores.
Smaller retail doors
“Ninja Restock is an innovation that aims to help fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies and other big brands to stay agile with the evolving nature of retail distribution,” noted Ninja Van Philippines Country Head Vin Perez. “Current models of distribution are beset with a lot of inefficiencies, and are unable to serve ever-smaller retail doors like convenience stores, drugstores, and local groceries,” he adds.
With Restock, Ninja Van is now able to co-load and deliver direct-to-store to major retailers’ branches across South Luzon – a boon to many manufactures and brands who usually have to endure longer wait times to fill a full truckload (FTL) before they could restock various stores. “Even if it’s just one case, or one pallet, you need to send out, you can co-load with other products, pay only for the space you need, and we can get to your desired destination more speedily,” Perez added.
‘Factory of the future’
Coming on the heels of URC’s Ninja Restock trial is a visit by the entire URC regional management team to Ninja Van’s Cabuyao warehouse – the Ninja Van Group’s largest automated sorting facility in Southeast Asia. Led by URC President and Chief Executive Officer Irwin Lee, the URC team toured the warehouse as part of their leadership conference learning immersion around digital transformation and “Factory of the Future.”
“In URC we believe in the power of technology to improve the way we do things, and we are constantly seeking ways to deliver value in all stages of our operations, from supply chain and production, to distribution and retail,” Lee highlighted.
With Ninja Restock, URC products get picked up, sorted, and then rolled out for last-mile delivery to various retail formats in speeds comparable to e-commerce purchases. “We welcome the opportunity to work together with a partner that shares our vision for tech-enablement and efficiency,” he added.
Scan-to-print technology
As Ninja Van gears up to serve more FMCGs for B2B services, it has also launched a new scan-to-print virtual fulfillment technology that minimizes human error in sorting. “Upon pickup from the shipper with case or box-level information of different SKUs, our system automatically assigns each box or case a unique tracking ID containing the designated store,” notes Perez.
Traditional distribution models often require manual consolidation of different SKUs into a single box or case assigned to one store, which can be tedious and prone to errors. With Ninja Van’s scan-to-print technology, each product case or box received gets automatically routed to the planned restock destination.
This virtual fulfillment capability gives real-time visibility to the shipper on the status of the different product SKUs for distribution, enabling them to map as well as plan for future restock runs. This further provides insight on future sales or seasonal campaigns.
Perez noted however, that this new technology is still in the trial stages, and further tweaks are expected as the organization learns from actual deliveries. “We developed this because we saw how difficult it was for many FMCGs to load and sort many different SKUs together to their desired destinations – and we always want to solve problems together with our partners,” he added.
