Origin consolidation done right

Sourcing the vast number of fresh products your consumers demand is a tricky business for today’s produce managers. The great news is that consumers still want fresh and fast – and they want varieties that were not considered “mainstream” previously. Although this opens the door for higher produce sales volumes, it also creates challenges upstream in product sourcing and shipping. 

From berries to greens and dry vegetables – the Salinas valley provides a host of fresh produce throughout the year. Likewise, tropical fruits like mangos, pineapples, avocados and papayas are sourced primary from Central and South America. 

So how can you ensure efficient supply from these various locations to meet your store location needs? We help address these challenges with origin consolidation services.

Here’s an example…

Retail customer ABC is currently sourcing berries, greens and tomatoes from numerous suppliers on the West coast to fill their network supply needs. Trucks are picking up products from numerous growers and delivering to warehouses, but they are not optimizing the capacity they need – partially filling trucks of these products separately. With fuel prices rising, and temperature controlled capacity at a premium, their transportation costs are high. 

Our solution – origin consolidation. With experts in both fresh produce and produce logistics, we help customer ABC pick up supplier in multiple locations to fill supply needs and optimize truck capacity.

Here’s another example…

Retail customer XYZ has aligned supply needs with suppliers – they are currently able to source what they need to fill network orders/needs, but their suppliers are far away from each other geographically and therefore require separate trucks and shipping lanes to deliver needed quantities. This adds time, resources, inefficient temperature controlled capacity use and produce consistency to their supply channel. 

Our solution – origin consolidation. Our network of 200+ product distributors allows for customers to select suppliers in the same geographically vicinity so customer XYZ can optimize their suppliers based on location and overall supply quantity needs. This help them utilize shipping capacity efficiently and provides for quality consistency across their store locations.   

Here’s another example…

Retail customer 123 is a small retailer with supply needs that do not add up to full truckloads and they are constantly paying more for capacity they don’t use. To be competitive in a highly competitive grocery marketplace, they need to find ways to optimize their shipping costs. 

Our solution – origin consolidation. Because we work with a number of retailers sourcing and distributing fresh products, we have the ability and product volumes to fill trucks with our network of customer supply needs – giving customer 123 the ability to optimize shipping costs while still received the smaller quantities of fresh products they need. In addition, we can optimize freight spend by consolidating grower picks into a single loading origin.

Conclusion

Whatever your supply challenges are, we can customize the appropriate solution(s) you need to optimize your inbound logistics. 

Robinson Fresh is unique positioned in both the fresh produce market, as well as a division of a world leading supply chain provider (C.H. Robinson). We have the produce supply, knowledge AND supply chain services you need to drive efficient supply to distribution logistics. 

Our solutions start from the ground up. Let’s connect to optimize your supply chain for today’s market needs.