What to Look for in your Drinks Logistics Resource
Ask yourself, what do you hate doing that your logistics company can free you from, so you can get your brand where you want it to be?
Anyone can move a product from A to B. But good drinks logistics companies do a whole lot more than that. While you may think ‘logistics’ and logistics companies just do the boring stuff, they actually are the problem-solving expertise behind some of the UK’s, and world’s, most exciting brands.
A great drinks logistics company should be the springboard for your brand, key to your smart operation, and guardian of your future growth.
The four Cs
Capability, capacity, cost and competence.
Sounds simple. But we’ll look at each in a bit more important detail.
1. Capability
Capability refers to the regulatory and legal challenges of moving drinks around.
Can the company ensure licences are properly in place and the regulations are met so all your needs and risks are covered in terms of duty, tax and HM’s Revenue and Customs?
Are there systems for tracking deliveries, stock and payments? Can they provide easy-to-access data so you can pull the reports you need and understand what’s going on?
You need to be reassured that, ultimately, they have the delivery network to get products to your customers when you need to.
2. Capacity
We don’t just mean, do they have a big enough warehouse to fit in all the stock? We mean labour, drivers, vehicles. Supply chains are complicated, so do they have the capacity for all the admin too that goes with it?
Can they run seven days a week and deliver to busy on-trade customers when it’s convenient for them to receive deliveries? Do they have the capacity to be flexible and operate in the way that’s best for your brand?
3. Cost
As much as we often don’t like to talk about cost, think of it as value for money and understand it in terms of the benefits to your business. You will always find a logistics company cheaper, but do they meet your needs?
Understand that costs exist: rent, distribution. Factor these in and understand how subscribing to a logistics company means you are buying in a range of technical specialisms that you couldn’t possibly employ one person for.
Understanding duty, managing sales, running purchase and sales ledger, and credit control, as well as operational expertise. It’s unlikely you can do all this yourself.
In order to assess cost, as a brand owner you’ll need to understand your own fully exploded costs - packaging, storage, transport, and, as much you might not want to think about it, disposal of stock.
Assess whether the logistics company you’re considering fits into your model, and what they’ll be able to offer in terms of freeing up your time and responsibility to develop your plan and longer-term strategy for growth.
Ask yourself, what do you hate doing that your logistics company can free you from, so you can get your brand where you want it to be?
Outsourcing should be cost-effective when you look at the end-to-end model.
4. Competence
This is the aspect of a drinks logistics company that really underpins its potential to propel your brand and be your partner in industry.
Do they have the experience and industry knowledge to reduce your barriers to entry?
There are high barriers to entry for even the smallest of producers. Duty rules, movement of alcohol, wholesale distribution are the same whatever size you are.
And, if you’re a creative mind, you might not have the willingness or capacity to get competent with all this stuff, so your barriers will remain high.
Do they have the competence to take you over those barriers, and help you to understand and navigate the pitfalls along your journey of travel?
Can you talk to them in your language?
We are really talking about that indefinable quality here that means they are right for you and your brand.
You need to be able to talk to them, in your own language. Discuss and test ideas and options. Engaging with your drinks logistics company should allow you to review your operation and provide opportunities. Efficiency, cleaner operation, understanding and oversight, industry knowledge, and shared passion for making your business their business.
Rather than locking you into contracts, do they operate with openness, transparency and flexibility.
Cultural alignment
You don’t want an off-the-shelf approach; you want understanding and cultural alignment – so you can grow your brand together.
Remember that you never outsource the responsibility, so the relationship is important. They are representing your brand at every touchpoint. Are you comfortable with that?
Logistics - the engineering to your art
Your drinks logistics company should enable your creative bandwidth. Their lifting of the everyday, the ‘boring’ stuff should really release you to propel your brand.
A competent group of individuals taking care of logistics offers you the time, resource and capability to strategise. If the boring stuff doesn’t get you out of bed in the morning, get someone else to do it.
At Tortuga it does, because we know our problem-solving capability and support enables real entrepreneurial opportunity and growth.