Global Link offering FLEX container service
By Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, September 30, 2007
Atlanta — Furniture importers can provide small to mid-sized retailers container- direct service from multiple factories in Asia using a new program called FLEX.
FLEX, short for Furniture Less than Container Express, is offered by Atlanta-based logistics service provider Global Link Logistics.
It allows North American furniture importers to place orders as small as 300 cubic feet. Those orders are in turn delivered to retailers via regional networks of less-than-truckload carriers specializing in furniture delivery.
Global Link officials say that FLEX can help companies reduce inventory levels and reduce the landed costs of goods shipped from Asia.
For years, importers have been able to serve retailers who want less-than-container quantities through domestic warehouses. But in many cases, those warehouses are far from the port facilities, according to Global Link.
Instead of using importers' warehouses, the FLEX program uses warehouses of the LTL carriers located close to port facilities. The carriers consolidate the orders and ship the product to retailers in their service areas.
"These regional warehouses are facilities provided by our LTL partners," said Ed Feitzinger, a vice president at Global Link. "They are primarily de-consolidation or flow-through centers. The containers come in and they unload the containers and then stage them for delivery."
He said the containers can hold orders for multiple retailers in a service area.
"For (importers) looking to expand their sales footprint, this is an attractive way to open up accounts," he said. "They don't have to have a lot of infrastructure to do this."
The program, in place since January, is used by companies like case goods importers Woodmarc and American Drew.
American Drew President Jack Richardson said FLEX greatly enhances his company's ability to mix goods for smaller retailers. Before, it could only mix a couple of groups from the same factory. Now it can mix as many as 11 Lea youth collections and six American Drew collections, from more than one factory.
"It allows us to take our product line to a broader line of retailers. A smaller dealer can take advantage of direct -container prices without having to buy a full container" of just a single suite, said Richardson.
Woodmarc retailers traditionally have purchased out of company warehouses in Iowa and Washington. They can still order from those warehouses, but the FLEX program gives them another option.
"It really fit in with our major initiative in 2007 to take the cost out of getting products to our dealers," said Woodmarc President Jerry Ruff. "We are putting as much emphasis on that as product development."
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