Noted: The Supply Chain in Brief

Sealed Deals

    • Robotics company Magazino signed shoe manufacturer and retailer Lloyd Shoes GmbH as a new customer. Magazino’s intelligent TORU robots will help employees select and store shoes in shelving racks at Lloyd’s dispatch warehouse in Sulingen, Germany. Magazino can integrate additional TORU robots into an existing fleet in less than half a day.
    • Casio UK renewed the outsourcing of its total UK supply chain operation to Yusen Logistics, extending the partnership to more than 30 years. Yusen Logistics handles Casio’s full range of products—including digital pianos, cash registers, watches, calculators, and digital projectors—for consumer and business markets.
    • The U.S. Transportation Command awarded Boeing a contract to enhance and sustain the Integrated Computerized Deployment System. The logistics software application automates load planning and tracks cargo movements across land, air, and sea for the U.S. Department of Defense.
    • Sports equipment company True Sports chose Geodis Netherlands as its European logistics partner to provide a customized racking layout that stores hockey sticks optimally and efficiently. The companies established a previous multiyear partnership in the United States and are reinforcing their global collaboration with this new contract.


  • Michelin awarded a new three-year contract to CEVA Logistics to handle its warehousing services and inventory management. Within its nearly 181,000-square-foot facility in Northwestern Spain, CEVA Logistics handles warehousing services, inventory management, and picking and loading of transport bound for Michelin customers and other automotive manufacturers.
  • Unilever, one of the world’s largest consumer goods companies, chose FM Logistic to manage the receipt, warehousing, order fulfillment, and co-packing of Unilever’s personal care products, such as Dove, at its logistics platform in Crépy-en-Valois, France. The contract also involves transporting certain products on behalf of Unilever. To better serve Unilever, FM Logistic expanded its capacity in Crépy-en-Valois to include 22 extra loading docks and storage room for 25,400 additional pallets.
  • Global brewer Heineken extended JDA Software’s cloud-based solution to most of its larger global locations to better manage demand volatility and increase its digital planning capabilities during a large-scale digital transformation. The brewer also started a pilot project with JDA Luminate Demand Edge to explore artificial intelligence and machine learning.
  • Ferrero USA, the confectionery company known for Nutella and Ferrero Rocher, is implementing FourKites’ predictive supply chain visibility solution throughout its North American supply chain. Ferrero uses FourKites’ machine learning-based platform to track inbound and outbound loads across truckload, less than truckload, and ocean transportation.
  • Huhtamaki, a global food packaging specialist, extended its contract with Transplace, a provider of transportation management services and logistics technology, to help automate its daily transportation activities, including carrier and mode selection, real-time shipment tracking, and freight audit and payment.
  • Base oil and lubricant manufacturer Avista Oil incorporated Sixfold’s live shipment data platform to provide customers with real-time shipment information. Avista Oil incorporated real-time visibility of its shipments within one week of onboarding the platform with carriers.
  • Schoolhouse Brewing, Georgia’s first open-source, rotating brewery, deployed tracking technology from LocatorX. The solution allows Schoolhouse Brewing to track its kegs and better communicate with customers to improve engagement and retention.
  • Family-owned farms Fagerberg Produce and Bybee Produce will extend their use of IFCO reusable plastic containers through 2020 to pack and ship onions to hundreds of retail locations throughout the United States. The containers are designed to facilitate maximum airflow during shipping, which helps keep the onions in peak quality from the farms to grocery retail locations.
  • Pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim selected NiceLabel, a developer of label design software and label management systems, to help create a global standardized labeling process to achieve seamless enterprise resource planning integration, make label changes easier, and improve operational efficiencies. NiceLabel’s document management system enables Boehringer to replace its manual quality-control procedures with a digitized process.

M&A

  • NFI, a supply chain solutions provider, acquired G&P Trucking Company, which provides asset-based transportation, non-asset drayage, and non-asset brokerage solutions.
  • Navis, part of Cargotec Corporation and a provider of software solutions to terminal operators and ocean carriers, acquired Jade Logistics, which provides an operating system for mixed-cargo ports and terminals.
  • VeriShip, a shipping expense optimization platform, acquired Valence, a software and managed-service company that tracks operational errors for sellers in Amazon’s Fulfillment by Amazon program.
  • Ontruck, a digital road freight platform, acquired digital freight forwarder Briver from Wtransnet, a freight exchange in Iberia, to gain a foothold in the Cataluña region of Spain.
  • Roadrunner Transportation Systems sold its flatbed business unit for $30 million in cash to an unnamed buyer.
  • Prologis, a logistics real estate company, acquired Liberty Property Trust, an owner of industrial space, for approximately $12.6 billion.
  • Hillebrand, which manages the transport and logistics of beverages and other special-care products, acquired Royal Logistics and Royal Service Transport, which provide transportation and warehousing in the greater Baltimore area.
  • Transportation Insight, an enterprise logistics solutions and services provider, acquired freight broker Meridian Logistics.
  • TrueCommerce, a provider of trading partner connectivity, integration, and unified commerce solutions, acquired Netalogue Technologies, a provider of B2B e-commerce solutions.

Shovel Ready

  • NewCold and B-Built broke ground in France to build NewCold’s automated coldstore, where automated storage and retrieval systems will move and store products in a dark, high-bay warehouse. Advanced software systems will direct the equipment and operators while products are kept in optimal condition.
  • Walmart chose Topeka, Kansas, as the site of its newest distribution facility in the United States. The DC is expected to open up 300 full-time positions during the next five years and create a total economic impact of $635 million in the next 10 years. This is the fourth Walmart distribution center in Kansas.

Green Seeds

  • DHL will debut StreetScooter’s zero-emission Work L delivery van on both U.S. coasts in spring 2020 as part of a pilot project. The company aims to widely deploy the electric vehicles by 2023 to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Good Works

  • J.B. Hunt Transport Services distributed wreaths from Harrington, Maine, to cemeteries throughout the country for Wreaths Across America Day in December 2019. Eighty-six drivers used 11 new military-themed tractors to help transport 28 loads of wreaths.

Recognition

  • Lloyd’s List presented its Lifetime Achievement Award to Farid Salem (pictured center), executive officer of the CMA CGM Group, a global container transportation and shipping company based in France. Salem, who helped grow the group to become a leader in container shipping and took part in CMA’s merger with CGM, was honored for his exceptional contribution to the maritime sector.
  • The Containerization & Intermodal Institute presented the 2019 Connie Award to Bruce A. Fenimore, chief executive officer of Columbia Group. Sara Mayes, president and chief executive officer of Gemini Shippers Group, received the institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Fenimore steered the growth of Columbia Group, a provider of inland and feeder transport services and equipment. Mayes is an industry veteran who shaped the fashion industry shippers’ association model.
  • The New York/New Jersey Foreign Freight Forwarders and Brokers Association named David F. Adam, chairman and chief executive officer of the United States Maritime Alliance, its 2020 Person of the Year. Adam is the organization’s chief negotiator in master contract bargaining and led the Bargaining Committee in negotiating a six-year agreement with the International Longshoremen’s Association, which covers 14,500 port workers on the East and Gulf Coasts.
  • ArcBest chair, president, and chief executive officer Judy R. McReynolds is among WomenInc.’s 2019 Most Influential Corporate Board Directors. McReynolds has 29 years of experience in logistics and transportation, including 22 years at ArcBest, and is the current chair of the American Transportation Research Institute board.
  • UNEX Manufacturing, maker of order-picking and space-saving solutions, earned the Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association’s Most Valuable Supplier Award for the fifth consecutive year. The award recognizes UNEX Manufacturing’s accomplishments in 2019 and commitment to its dealer network, employees, and community.
  • Werner Enterprises was recognized as the Enterprise Business of the Year at the 2019 Applied Information Management Institute Tech Celebration for its outstanding application of technology. Werner associate Marina Brown was also named Tech Champion of the Year for contributing her time and talents to the nonprofit institute and other tech community initiatives to develop tech awareness and skills in others.
  • Global logistics provider Dachser’s optimized customs clearance process helped Tetra Pak, a multinational food packaging and processing company, achieve a first-place airport efficiency ranking from the Viracopos Airport in Brazil.

Up the Chain

  • Paul Babbs was named chief supply chain officer at Marks & Spencer to help the British multinational retailer revive its clothing division. Babbs had been with Adidas for the past 12 years and was most recently its chief supply chain officer.
  • Robert “Joe” Mills was appointed vice president of supply chain at medical device company Soliton. Mills will help the company prepare for the 2020 launch of its tattoo removal device.