LOGISTICS provider Ninja Van Philippines and food and beverage manufacturer Universal Robina Corp. (URC) have partnered to improve the latter’s product restocking and distribution in key regions.
The trial phase of the partnership will see Ninja Van utilizing its Ninja Restock business-to-business (B2B) logistics service to pick up, sort, and distribute various URC products to retail points in South Luzon.
Ninja Restock uses Ninja Van’s e-commerce express logistics network, which allows URC to serve big-box retailers such as malls, as well as small-door formats like convenience stores and local grocery stores.
“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,” Ninja Van Philippines Country Head Jose Alvin Perez said in an e-mailed statement on Monday.
“Ninja Restock is an innovation that aims to help fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies and other big brands stay agile with the evolving nature of retail distribution,” he added.
Meanwhile, Ninja Van launched a new scan-to-print virtual fulfillment technology that reduces human error in sorting.
With the technology, each product case or box received is automatically routed to the planned restock destination.
It also provides the shipper with real-time visibility on the status of the different product stock-keeping units (SKUs) for distribution.
Ninja Van said the newly launched technology is still in its trial stages and further tweaks are expected.
“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,” Mr. Perez said.
“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. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave
