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C.H. Robinson and SAS partner to unleash new tools for retail industry

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C.H. Robinson and SAS partner to unleash new tools for retail industry. Image: Pexels
C.H. Robinson and SAS partner to unleash new tools for retail industry. Image: Pexels
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C.H. Robinson and world-renowned data analytics company SAS announced a partnership to rewrite the way global supply chains work as they become increasingly more complex. Until now, supply chain demand planning and shipping execution often worked in autonomous siloes without connection, digital integration, or real-time visibility. This partnership will solve that problem by creating a first-of-its-kind offering: an end-to-end supply chain solution that integrates inventory and demand signal data with real-time transportation data. Steering a supply chain from a centralized operation like this will allow companies more fluid adjustments in scheduling, carriers, and responses to changing consumer demand while inventory is still moving on the ground.

Retail and CPG (consumer packaged goods) companies in North America will benefit first from this integration, although it is designed to eventually fill the gap between business and logistical planning across all industries.

“The C.H. Robinson and SAS collaboration uses data and analytics to solve a gargantuan supply chain problem: agility,” said Brian Kilcourse, retail and CPG analyst at RSR Group. “As 2020’s shortages illustrated, COVID pushed retailers and consumer goods companies over the supply chain cliff. The C.H. Robinson-SAS partnership combines data from retailers and consumer goods companies with logistics and transportation data to build faster, more resilient, cost-effective shipping methods that honor traditional models while clearing a path for needed innovation.”

According to SAS’ Richard Widdowson, Vice President of Global Retail & CPG Solutions, the future winners in transforming retail supply chains will be those who change their mindset from long-term planning to agile planning by effectively leveraging data to make adjustments in real time. “Powered by SAS and mobilized by C.H. Robinson, this partnership helps companies see their supply chains in a new light,” Widdowson said. “It will help make opportunities and challenges visible as they happen so our customers can accomplish more – even during a disruption of pandemic proportions.”

Within an integrated data loop, SAS triggers a demand plan which feeds into C.H. Robinson’s dynamic transportation procurement tool. In turn, that connects into the world’s largest supply chain management platform, Navisphere, to provide real time visibility of inventory, which then links back and informs SAS’ Intelligent Planning suite. This means a retailer or maker of packaged goods, for example, can connect its corporate demand plans to products and freight on the move. They then can better react to real-time changes in demand, such as surge in consumer interest, and real-time changes in transportation factors, such as inclement weather.

“By establishing this unprecedented information loop, we are transforming the procurement process and giving companies the information advantage and flexibility needed to better compete in today’s rapidly evolving transportation marketplace,” said C.H. Robinson’s chief commercial officer Chris O’Brien. “Rather than relying solely on an annual transportation contract event which frequently becomes out of sync with real-world variables, we can build a more dynamic procurement plan that can flex based on real-time changes in product demand and the transportation market. More than ever, supply chain agility, based on real-time data, can be a competitive advantage for companies.”

“Our work with C.H. Robinson and others at the MIT FreightLab has shown that the freight transportation industry needs innovation in procurement and demand-planning to reduce cost, minimize risk, and increase the level of service for shippers,” said Chris Caplice, Executive Director of the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics (CTL) and FreightLab. “This partnership helps move the industry forward in the right direction of a more responsive and agile transportation procurement solution.”

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Freight Forwarding

Kuehne+Nagel acquires South African freight forwarder Morgan Cargo

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Kuehne+Nagel acquires South African freight forwarder Morgan Cargo. Image: Kuehne+Nagel
Kuehne+Nagel acquires South African freight forwarder Morgan Cargo. Image: Kuehne+Nagel
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Kuehne+Nagel signed an agreement to acquire Morgan Cargo, a leading South African, UK and Kenyan freight forwarder specialised in the transport and handling of perishable goods. During 2022 the company handled more than 40,000 tonnes of air freight and more than 20,000 TEU of sea freight globally, managed by approximately 450 logistics experts.

The acquisition of Morgan Cargo ideally complements Kuehne+Nagel’s perishables logistics service offering, while improving connectivity for customers to and from South Africa, the UK and Kenya, which includes state-of-the-art cold chain facilities.

Yngve Ruud, Member of the Management Board of Kuehne+Nagel, responsible for Air Logistics, commented: “With Morgan Cargo, we acquire a reliable logistics service provider for the benefit of our customers. Expansion in high-growth markets such as Africa clearly ties into our Roadmap 2026 and reinforces our commitment to the Middle East and Africa Region. We have been active in Africa for many years, but this acquisition is an ideal addition to our regional presence.”

Schalk Bruwer, CEO of Morgan Cargo, added: “We wanted to expand our successful family-owned business and took the opportunity to become part of one of the world leaders in logistics. This new development will provide greater opportunities for our customers in terms of global reach and allow our team to advance their careers beyond the realm that was previously possible. Morgan Cargo is extremely excited to become part of Kuehne+Nagel.”

Closing of the transaction is expected during the third quarter of 2023 and is subject to customary closing conditions, including clearance by the competent merger control authorities.

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Yusen Logistics partners with Toyota Motor to accelerate decarbonization

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Yusen Logistics partners with Toyota Motor to accelerate decarbonization. Image: Yusen Logistics
Yusen Logistics partners with Toyota Motor to accelerate decarbonization. Image: Yusen Logistics
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Following on from last week’s press release Toyota to decarbonise its logistics activities in Europe, Yusen Logistics Europe partners with Toyota Motor Europe in this proactive approach to alternative powertrain development.

Together with VDL Special Vehicles, Yusen Logistics is honored to be part of the team to help accelerate the decarbonization of Toyota’s logistics network with the use of hydrogen fuel cell trucks. Using Toyota’s fuel cell modules VDL will convert an existing vehicle into a zero-emission truck for Yusen Logistics to operate within Toyota Motor Europe’s logistics network.

The innovative technology project is a significant step towards reducing both companies’ overall carbon footprint and aligns with Yusen Logistics’ wider commitment to working together with our partners and communities towards a more sustainable future.

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cargo-partner becomes part of Nippon Express Group

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cargo-partner becomes part of Nippon Express Group. Image: Cargo Partner
cargo-partner becomes part of Nippon Express Group. Image: Cargo Partner
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As cargo-partner is celebrating its 40th anniversary, company owner and founder Stefan Krauter has decided to sell the Austrian global logistics player to Japanese stock-listed Nippon Express Holdings, which is also the parent company of Nippon Express, APC, Franco Vago and others. Having started operations in 1983 with only five employees at Vienna Airport and having developed the company almost completely organically to now 4,000 employees in 40 countries around the globe, Stefan Krauter had already passed on the baton to his management and now has also passed over ownership to his “ideal successor” NX.

After exceeding the billion euro mark in global turnover for the first time in 2020, cargo-partner’s turnover increased by 72%, reaching over 1.8 billion euro in 2021, and further increased to 2.06 billion euro in 2022.

“Leadership by agile founders bears some considerable advantages, but from a certain stage on, highly professional and long-term stable ownership is the bigger asset. It is the founders’ challenge and responsibility to decide about both management and ownership succession at the right time. Not too early to be able to build a stable internal management succession but, for sure, also not too late,” Krauter says. “That is why, together with the Corporate Executive Board, we started evaluating different options for the future of cargo-partner.”

Stefan Krauter continues to explain: “It would also have been a good option for the management and employees to continue going completely alone, but since the ideal new strategic owner was found in NX Group, we were ultimately convinced that this was the right way to go forward. Following the integration policy we have seen from NX Group so far, cargo-partner will remain cargo-partner in regard to both organization and branding – and it will become the strongest cargo-partner ever!”

The deal was signed on May 12, 2023 and will come into effect subject to the usual regulatory (anti-trust and FDI) approvals in an estimated four to seven months along with the subsequent closing.

“Both organizations will benefit from considerable synergies in global office coverage, an expanded service portfolio, strengthened regional, product and IT know-how, increased scale and others. NX Group will benefit from our strong and extensive network in Central and Eastern Europe that complements NX’s existing network in an ideal way, and cargo-partner will jump several leagues in the Intra-Asian and Trans-Pacific trade lanes,” Stefan Krauter states. He adds: “cargo-partner will also continue to work with its current global agents’ network, strive to expand this section of its business and support it in future with its upgraded platform which is presently under development.”

“I will personally continue to support the transition in my new role on the Corporate Supervisory Board and in my advisory function to the Corporate Executive Board. I will be focusing on smart partial integration with the new owners as well as on other matters regarding strategy, M&A and ESG. What an interesting and rewarding challenge at the end of my career!” Krauter says.

The sellers have been advised by J.P. Morgan (financial), ValueAdd (financial), BCG (commercial), Schönherr (legal), and Deloitte (accounting and tax) on the transaction.

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