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The next time you stop at a take-out food chain or call for a late-night food delivery, you’ll be joining millions of Americans whose fast-paced schedules have made food “to go” one of the hottest segments of the industry. In fact, more restaurant meals are now served as take-outs rather than as sit-down meals, according to recent studies.
This demand consumes plenty of plastic to-go boxes, as well as tabletop paper products. Among the leading North American providers of these items is InnoWare Inc., (formerly Duni Americas) and it must have an efficient and responsive distribution network to be competitive.
The company provides solutions for any occasion when people consume food and drink, whether at home, in a restaurant, for take-away, at a hotel or within the food service industry. Distribution challenges have presented significant hurdles, some of which it has only recently cleared.
“Until last year our experience with outsourced providers of logistics services had not been very good,” explains Mikael Nordin, COO and President Americas. “At one point our overseas group had trouble with a primary logistics provider, and after we terminated that relationship, we went back to managing the process ourselves.”
He could see, however, that with all the competing demands for time and resources within the company, distribution management wasn’t getting the full attention it needed. For example, on-time delivery was in the low 80s, as was the company’s inventory accuracy rate.