Overseas Distribution Company

With a mission to get the right products to travellers at the right time in duty-free shops at airports, on cruise ships and aeroplanes, Overseas Distribution Company provides an integrated service. Following the implementation of Slimstock’s Slim4 solution, the company has achieved 97% service levels with less stock.

Overseas Distribution Company, based in Antwerp, Belgium, connects leading brands in the tobacco, spirits, beer, wine, confectionery and chocolate sectors worldwide with travellers through tax-free shops. ‘We have around 400 customers in 50 countries, whom we supply on a weekly basis,’ explains Matthias De Roeck, Business Support Manager at Overseas Distribution Company.

“We all benefit from perfect deliveries, which is why we work with TAPA-secured warehouses and transport. They use advanced techniques such as camera surveillance, access control and GPS tracking to secure every step in the logistics process. This enables us, as a family business, to get every delivery to our customers completely, safely and quickly,” adds Laurent Harrewyn, Purchase Director.

Dynamic inventory management

Until 2019, order processes were handled manually by one operator per product category. This meant that a lot of information was lost if that person was unable to work due to unforeseen circumstances. After conducting a market analysis, Overseas Distribution Company decided to switch to dynamic inventory management. ‘We chose Slimstock because one of our customers had excellent experiences with Slim4.’

After a smooth implementation process, Overseas Distribution Company went live with Slim4 just three months after integration began in 2020. Since then, the Antwerp-based service provider’s team has seen its logistics processes are running far more smoothly. “Thanks to Slim4, we manage our stocks much more efficiently. The software accurately predicts demand, optimises our ordering times and helps us keep stock levels tightly under control, without the risk of shortages. We have noticed that our stock is now much more balanced. Our service level has also risen to 97%. Our target was 95%, so this is an improvement. And we’ve achieved this while tying up less working capital in stock.”

Centralised control

Planners, who have been trained and sometimes update their knowledge via the Slimstock Academy, save time thanks to automation of repetitive tasks, which allows them to focus on exceptions. ‘The clear dashboards, which we were able to customise to our own needs, give us continuous insight into performance. In addition, Slim4 enables us to centrally manage inventory in multiple international warehouses from our head office. All of this delivers a clear and rapid return on investment. “Processes also continue to run smoothly even when one or more Overseas Distribution Company employees are unavailable”.

‘You don’t need to be an IT expert to get started, quite the opposite. The software is very intuitive, clearly laid out and allows you to gain the right insights or place optimised orders at the touch of a button. We have exchanged our former logistical challenges for automated, continuous stock optimisation,’ conclude Matthias De Roeck and Laurent Harrewyn.