|
Page
3 of 5
The
problem with Shanghai was that it did not
have a free trade zone that could serve
as a platform to export goods. Thus a "Common
Warehouse" had to be found that would
be able to accommodate a massive volume
of goods without any Customs supervision.
The
logistics team at Carrefour had six months
to put the necessary arrangements in place
before the products' promotional launch
in 2003. The programme comprised taking
the orders in December, allowing 60 days
for suppliers to manufacture the products,
delivery from the suppliers at the end of
March, four to five weeks for packing the
goods, shipping in early May, arriving at
destination in early June, and then delivery
in June to the stores at destination.
Carton
makers had to be found and specifications
gleaned from head office to determine the
strength of the cartons and type of paper
to be used. Paper had to be imported into
China because the nation only produces recycled
paper which is weak and less resistant,
as the fibre has been totally broken. The
cartons had to be strong to endure 25-30
days in the container at sea plus handling
at origin and destination, loading and reloading,
and loading again at the store.
Another
issue was the fact they were dealing with
several categories of products, including
toys, hand tools and kitchen utensils. Depending
on the size and shape of the merchandise,
one display could hold anything between
100 and 800 pieces.
With
all the necessary arrange-ments in place,
they faced packing 27 million pieces in
four to five weeks. They positioned between
600 and 700 staff at the 8,000-square-metre
warehouse in Shanghai, a platform set up
entirely for packing. Given the limited
amount of space for the goods, they devised
a continuous supply flow, preparing a very
tight schedule with the vendors.
A
team of about 20 people were dedicated to
managing the inventory with the vendors,
receiving the goods at the warehouse, arranging
for Customs clearance, with the import-export
company in the middle, and making all the
financial arrangements. They ensure the
vendors received their tax refund after
the goods had been exported and paid for.
Producing one export document for containers
holding up to 100 to 120 displays, with
goods from 20 to 25 different factories
proved a mammoth task.
To
give you an idea of the numbers involved,
for the June promotion, they were dealing
with around 450 containers loaded with a
total of 27 million pieces of merchandise
destined for shipment overseas.
"This
export document cannot be cut into 25 pieces.
So the import-export company was receiving
the tax refund from the Tax Bureau in China,
and passed back the tax to the factories.
You
need also a lot of support from the factories,
if you want to do this but if you don't
have the name, basically you can't do it,
because they say 'who is going to pay me,
how am I going to receive my tax refund?'
We needed also to give some guarantees to
the vendors that everything is going to
be fine. That we would honour the payments
and prepare the relevant documentation in
order for them to be able to claim the tax
back," Mr Martin said.
Two
months after the successful June promotion
at Carrefour stores worldwide, they were
asked to repeat the operation. This time
for 22 million pieces in September, giving
them one month to make the arrangements.
Page 1 2
3 4 5
[Next]
|
