Ahead of the 25th Supply Chain Excellence Awards, LogisticsManager.com caught up with Retail Supply Chain Excellence Award nominee Maersk, with Pure Electric.
Taking place on 8th November at the Hilton on Park Lane in London, the Supply Chain Excellence Awards are set to be a night of celebration, as the best in the logistics industry gather together on this very special 25th Anniversary.
How does it feel to have been shortlisted for a Supply Chain Excellence Award?
The Supply Chain Excellence Award is a benchmark for supply chain best practice and it makes us proud to be nominated in the ‘Retail Supply Chain Excellence Award’ category, an industry where Maersk is offering advanced supply chain solutions and is working with many leading companies globally. The combination of connected physical assets across ocean and land, and new digital platforms provides us with a unique advantage – the flexibility to tailor logistics solutions according to the needs of our customers. Being shortlisted for the Retail Supply Chain Excellence Award is confirming the great partnership that we have with our partner Pure Electric. The nomination also underlines that integrated logistics holds some of the most untapped business potential in this decade and that Maersk is on the right track with its vision of becoming the global integrator of container logistics.
What has changed in your project since you entered?
Since the award entry, one of the focus areas were the ‘opportunity of change’. Pure Electric and Maersk are preparing for a potential uplift in volume in regards to the UK.
Furthermore, Maersk completed the acquisition of B2C Europe, a business-to-consumer logistics company specialised in B2C parcel delivery services in Europe. This acquisition strengthens A.P. Moller – Maersk’s E-commerce Logistics products suite in line with its strategic business transformation and Pure Electric and Maersk are exploring potential synergies for the existing logistics setup.
Pure Electric also increased their product range by adding electric bicycles to their portfolio which impacted the logistical requirements and increased the complexity of their supply chain. Due to the high ambitions of Pure Electric (new products and markets) and also Maersk (Global Integrator of Container Logistics), the partnership is constantly evolving.
What are you most excited for on the night of the Awards?
Being nominated as finalist in the ‘Retail Supply Chain Excellence Award’ category created a lot of excitement and the award night itself will show who the winner of this award is. We keep our fingers crossed that the great partnership with Pure Electric will be the winner, but we are aware that many great supply chain stories have been entered and presented. On the award night itself, Maersk is fortunate enough to share the table with important stakeholders from Pure Electric including Adam Norris the founder and owner of the company. We are looking forward to toast to our success story and partnership whether we win the award or not.
Implementing new tools is paramount in building resilience and improving flexibility to be able to quickly adapt to rapidly changing retail trends. The priority for supply chains will shift away from cost and towards resilience and reducing exposure to regional or global disruptions
What do you think is the most important thing to focus on now in the industry? What should be the biggest priority when it comes to change for the better?
The retail industry is constantly changing. An environmentally conscious consumer, omnichannel sales and digitisation are shaping the industry and driving complexity into retail supply chains. And supply chain disruptions such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the Suez-Canal incident or the Yantian port congestion add additional complexity and also uncertainty to the industry. The main issues felt by supply chain executives in the retail sector are high fluctuation in customer demand, lack of flexibility allowing quick reaction to changes, and meeting customer expectations. All this is highlighting one of the key needs of the industry: Implementing new tools is paramount in building resilience and improving flexibility to be able to quickly adapt to rapidly changing retail trends. The priority for supply chains will shift away from cost and towards resilience and reducing exposure to regional or global disruptions. 2021 has also shown a very strong uplift when it comes to more environment friendly solutions and Maersk is constantly driving the decarbonisation of container logistics.
What are you looking forward to after the Awards?
Keep working with our customers to simplify their supply chains with integrated logistics solutions. The partnership with Pure Electric is highlighting that integrated logistics hold some of the most untapped business potential in this decade especially with the increasing need of resilient and flexible supply chains including clear supply chain visibility. Great stories like the Pure Electric and Maersk partnership allow us to showcase other customers what we have done for similar businesses. The Retail Supply Chain Excellence Award would add a great neutral voice to this success story.
What made you decide to compete for the Supply Chain Excellence Awards?
The Supply Chain Excellence Awards are a well-known benchmark for supply chain best practices as they recognise and reward organisations around the world that demonstrate excellence in their supply chain operations or, in our case, an organisation that delivers leading logistics services to help our customers to achieve supply chain excellence. We are proud of the partnership that we have established with Pure Electric and we wanted to demonstrate and showcase what we have achieved together. Winning the ‘Retail Supply Chain Excellence Award’ would be a great recognition of our achievement and the award would add a neutral voice to our story. It would also highlight the increasing need and benefits of integrated logistics in the industry.
How will you celebrate if you win? Where will you keep the trophy?
If we win the ‘Retail Supply Chain Excellence Award’, it will be celebrated on the award night itself. Maersk is fortunate enough to share the table with important stakeholders from Pure Electric including Adam Norris the founder and owner of the company. A great opportunity to toast to our success story and partnership. The win would also be celebrated as part of an internally best practice story to recognise this achievement. External communication of the award win will certainly be part of the celebration as well. It would be important to communicate the win of an industry benchmark which highlights that Maersk is the right partner to work with.
The trophy would be a joined achievement that highlights the partnership between Pure Electric and Maersk. If there will be one trophy for two companies, we will leave it up to our partner Pure Electric to decide where the trophy will be kept. If Maersk will get the trophy, we will display it in our UK head office.
What are your hopes for the project going forward? What are your next steps?
The partnership between Pure Electric and Maersk is an ongoing journey with new challenges and opportunities. Pure Electric’s ambition is leading to a broader product portfolio and new market entries which are resulting in additional logistical requirements. Maersk’s ambition to become the global integrator of container logistics is leading to constant developments in regards to its product portfolio (organically or through acquisitions like KGH or B2C Europe) which creates additional opportunities for Maersk and Pure Electric to intensify the collaboration.
The combination of connected physical assets across ocean and land, and new digital platforms provides us with a unique advantage – the flexibility to tailor logistics solutions according to the needs of our customers including different modes of transportation and full control
What difference did the project make for your company and for the sector?
The logistics solutions that have been established together with Pure Electric really demonstrate the benefits of integrated logistics. Integrated logistics is the final goodbye to complexity as we leverage technology to create new possibilities for flexibility, efficiency and growth. It requires a change of mindset. What it offers is an unparalleled change of outcome across land, sea or through the air. The combination of connected physical assets across ocean and land, and new digital platforms provides us with a unique advantage – the flexibility to tailor logistics solutions according to the needs of our customers including different modes of transportation and full control. Why talk about risks, when you can talk about opportunity? But the success story with Pure Electric is not only a story that we like to discuss with our customers. Customer stories like this are also helping to drive internal engagement and pride amongst employees by showcasing how we as a company help our customers to simplify their supply chains and create ease of business.
What are your impressions of the Supply Chain Excellence Awards generally?
There are lots of awards within logistics and we feel that the Supply Chain Excellence Awards are one of the most prestigious awards in our industry and that’s why we chose to enter our story together with Pure Electric.
Can you sum up 2021 from a supply chain perspective?
In 2021 Supply Chain professionals faced major challenges – the ongoing global pandemic, Brexit, the movement towards more sustainable logistics solutions or the Suez Canal incident. ‘Unprecedented’ could be used to sum it up in one word. While 2021 came with many challenges, it also came with change and opportunities. The priority for supply chains shifted away from cost and towards resilience and reducing exposure to regional or global disruptions. The eventful year triggered a fundamental mindset shift while accelerating topics such as sustainability and omnichannel/e-commerce at the same time.
Do you have any advice for future Supply Chain Excellence Awards competitors?
To get close to your customers it is important to listen to them – “walking in their shoes”. An award winning relationship is all about partnership and a partnership mindset. With all the challenges and increased complexity, it is crucial to step away from transactional processes towards a strong collaboration where challenges and opportunities will be discussed together.
