Weber Distribution Signs 3-Year Contract with Welch's
SANTA FE SPRINGS, California, May 1, 2006
Welch's, a leading producer of juices, jams and jellies, has signed a three-year contract with Weber Distribution, a leading logistics and supply chain management provider, to serve as its West Coast distribution center, effectively immediately.
From Welch's Lawton, Mich., manufacturing plant, more than 100 different flavors and sizes of juices and jellies are shipped via rail to Weber's La Mirada, Calif.-based facility. The 203,000-square-foot distribution center contains six on-site rail doors where roughly 260 inbound loads or nearly 450,000 cases of Welch's products are received each month. Some of the product is stored in a 75,000-square-foot section of the warehouse, while much of it is immediately processed and labeled for distribution to Welch's customers across the 11 Western states. Welch's customers include mass retailers and grocery chains such as Wal-Mart, Costco, Safeway and Vons, as well as convenience, food/drug, and specialty stores.
According to Bruce True, Welch's manager of distribution planning, Welch's hired Weber because of its expertise in handling grocery and solid distribution network. "We closed our plant on the West Coast, so we needed to find a third-party logistics (3PL) company that could handle warehousing, order consolidation, and delivery to our customers," said True. "Until Weber, we were shipping 95% of the product from our plant warehouses directly to our customers."
Weber processes, picks, labels and transports an average of 425 orders or more than 350,000 cases per month for Welch's. "Welch's obviously has great brand recognition on the West Coast and we are very excited to be part of its West Coast supply chain strategy," said Bill Butler, Weber Distribution's senior vice president, client solutions and marketing.
As part of the agreement, Welch's is taking advantage of Weber's comprehensive vendor compliance program, which manages all of the major retailers' specific routing, shipping and labeling requirements. At the heart of the compliance program is a custom-designed internal web site that allows all of Weber's warehouses to quickly reference every major retailers' most recent routing and shipping requirements, without having to individually review and interpret routing and vendor guides.
About Welch's
Welch's is the world's leading marketer of Concord and Niagara grape-based products, including 100% grape juice and jelly. The company produces a variety of other fruit-based products, including 100% juices, juice cocktails, and drinks in the following forms: single serve, bottled, refrigerated, and frozen and shelf-stable concentrates. In addition, Welch's produces a number of fruit spread products under both the Welch's and BAMA brand names. Welch's Web site can be found at http://www.welchs.com
Founded in 1869 by Dr. Thomas Bramwell Welch, Welch's is a grower-owned cooperative and functions as the processing and marketing subsidiary of the National Grape Cooperative. Today, the company sells more than 400 products throughout the United States and in more than 50 other countries and territories worldwide.
About Weber Distribution
Established in 1924, Los Angeles-based Weber Distribution is a leading West-Coast provider of contract warehousing and transportation logistics, including distribution, supply chain management, real estate development, personnel staffing, transportation management, material handling and order fulfillment.
Weber specializes in serving four vertical markets: Retail and import, food, chemical, and paper. Its clients include Simplicity for Children, Ocean Spray, International Specialty Products (ISP) Chemicals, Mohawk Paper, Scholastic Books, and Mission Foods just to name a few.
Weber operates over 2,800,000 square feet of warehouse facilities and its own in-house dedicated trucking fleet. The company moved more than 100 million pounds of freight last year, making it the eighth largest domestic third party logistics provider in the United States. Weber was recently recognized as one of the nation's leading 3PL's by Inbound Logistics magazine.
For more information about Weber Distribution and the services they have to offer, please call 877-624-2700 or visit www.weberdistribution.com.
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