Partnership to launch temperature-controlled facilities, expand fleet capabilities
Digital Wine Ventures’ supply chain solutions arm, WineDepot, has expanded a partnership with Border Express to roll out a national network of temperature-controlled depots.
It sets an ambitious target of “being up and running by the end of this year ready for summer” in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, with a six-month timeframe to be fully operational.
As part of the deal, Border Express will provide storage, logistics, freight and third-party logistics services for an initial two years, with the option to extend terms.
“Temperatures in ambient warehouses can often reach over 40 degrees in summer at ground level and well over 50 degrees at higher levels,” Digital Wines CEO Dean Taylor says.
“While most winery owners would hate to know that’s how their wines are been treated, up until now there hasn’t really been any other option.
“It is therefore my honour and privilege to set another benchmark for the industry by progressively rolling out a National Network of Temperature-Controlled Depots for the wine and beverage industry.
“I am confident that our move will be greatly appreciated by not only wine producers using our service but also consumers alike, when they receive a delivery from WINEDEPOT.”
It comes not long after the company launched a 10,000 pallet climate-controlled National Distribution Centre (NDC) in the Albury-Wodonga region.
“This facility provides us with an extra 10,000 pallet spaces of climate-controlled storage that can be increased to 25,000 pallets if required,” Taylor says.
“Having this additional storage capacity will help us onboard customers and products much more quickly, particularly distributors with large portfolios.”
“The additional capacity also provides us the opportunity to increase our presence in the bulk packaged wine storage market, at a time when Wine Australia is warning that the global over supply of wine will be its highest in at least 10 years.”
The partnership with Border Express was spurred from that opportunity and founder Max Luff is also encouraged by the partnership between the businesses.
How Border Express navigated Covid-19 and its logistical challenges, here
“As the third generation of our family moves into the business, we’ve never been more focused on embracing innovation and setting benchmarks within our industry. We understand that this takes time, effort and patience,” Luff says.
“Dean’s vision for WINEDEPOT and the ethos that supports it aligns with our core values.
“To help him roll out a solution like this that not only makes the wine supply chain more efficient, but also delivers more dollars back into regional areas, is an honour and privilege.”
WineDepot expects to expand its delivery fleet capabilities to cater for the growth, with COO Steven Alexander overseeing the roll out of the new depot network.
“The first of these is that it allows us to expand our network of final mile carriers. Up until now we have relied exclusively on Australia Post to complete both our trade and consumer deliveries,” he says.
“While we plan to continue using Australia Post for direct-to-consumer orders, we will engage with a selection of other carriers for our direct-to-trade orders which tend to be larger, more time sensitive and often have very specific delivery requirements.
“Having access to more than one carrier allows us to maintain service levels when the network is congested more effectively.
“It also allows us to scale our platform more rapidly and de-risks our operation considerably.
“Introducing competition across the fleet also allows us to put pressure on improving service levels and costs.”
“Thirdly is that by being based within Border Express’ existing freight network allows us to not only replenish our east coast depots overnight but also to cross-dock orders picked and packed at our National Distribution Centre (NDC) overnight too.”