Page 33 - Sphere No.18 (Feb 2007)

hours if fresh produce needs to be air freighted from Australia
or New Zealand.
“Great efforts have had to be made in the fresh food area,
sometimes building completely new supply chains to deal with
chilled pork or live fish,” he said. “Quality control and trace-
ability are hugely important to guarantee the safety of food and
deliver it in the minimum time to offer the highest freshness
to the customer.”
On the other hand it might take weeks if the product is
sourced in Europe and has a long shelf life. For example, in
the UK, consolidators are responsible for shipping hundreds of
different items in single containers to meet the demands of the
large expatriate community.
On arrival, most items are taken to one of the four
PARKnSHOP warehouses in Kwai Chung, Fotan, Sheung Shui
or Sha Tin (Watsons and Fortress have separate warehouses)
before making their way to the individual stores.
ASWwill then use a diagram called a planogram to show how
and where specific products should be placed and displayed in
the store to increase customer purchases. They are de-
veloped using key pieces of information about
products, such as the amount of remain-
ing inventory and vol-
ume of sales per square
foot of retail space.
Although the item
has now been sourced,
purchased, transported,
delivered and displayed,
and all the customer has
to do is put it in their
trolley, the supply chain
is not yet complete as the
shelves will soon need to
be refilled.
“Replenishment is perhaps the most important part of the
whole process because if you get it wrong it shows the supply
chain isn’t functioning properly,” explains Mr Bartlett. “How
SPHERE 31
D E M AND
BY THE NUMBERS
■ ASW’s shipping department imports more than 10,000
containers a year and over 150 tons per week of air freight
■ There are 200 delivery trucks on the road every day
■ PARKnSHOP serves four million customers a week
and sells more than one billion items a year, including:
+ 1.5 million oranges every week
+ 1,000 tons of rice a day
■ Watsons Your Personal Store sells 100,000 bottles
of shampoo and conditioner a week