From chaos to order: Accur8 Distribution’s journey to save time and money through Maersk Air Freight.
The background
Our customer, Accur8 Distribution, is a distribution platform for youth lifestyle and outdoor brands like Steve Madden, Vans and Jansport. Having been in the industry for over 20 years, they are committed to providing comprehensive brand management solutions. For this acquisition account from 5 years ago, we pitched to let us help them with the operational challenges they were facing with their cargo for Vans.
The challenge
The customer was facing problems with equipment availability, especially from Asia, their primary hub for cargo. In addition, protests and strikes in Colombia led to the closure of ports like Buenaventura for a couple of weeks. This made it impossible to carry out internal shipments, leading to an inventory shortage. The need of the hour was to meet the market demands because the customer’s cargo was not arriving on time at the Buenaventura Port. We aimed to devise an optimal solution that could reduce both transit time and costs.
The solution
Due to the closure of ports, we had to quickly devise an alternate mode of transportation. By choosing Maersk Air Freight, we were able to connect Panama and Bogotá by air. The Sea-Air solution (a combination of our ocean services with air freight) made the transit shorter and safer, making it possible for our customer to receive and release the merchandise on time and comply with their commitments.
The result
With Air Freight, our customer was able to quickly react to this situation without losing precious time. This resulted in:
- Savings of more than 15 days in transit time
- Cost savings of 40%
- Smooth transition in operations
After this success, we started handling the cargo of other brands under Accur8 Distribution’s repertoire for different routes like Peru and Colombia. This was followed by another proud moment in 2021 when Accur8 decided to use Maersk for the transport operations for Steve Madden as well.
I would like to take the opportunity in these uncertain times to recognise the hard work and strong collaboration from the Maersk team. We have been working together for several years, and we have always considered them as part of our team, which has led to improving our ways of working (processes and delivery times). This has allowed us to succeed in the past months, given the Covid-19 pandemic when we managed to have shipments on time because the team knew exactly what to do and when.
I only have words of gratitude for them. Thank you, Maersk Team, our team!
Contact our air freight experts
Anything you need, we’re here to help
Logistics solutions
Contact us
Ready to ship?
By submitting this form, I agree to receive logistics related news and marketing updates from A. P. Moller-Maersk and its affiliated companies via e-mail. I understand that I can opt out of such Maersk communications at any time. To see how we process your personal data, please see our Privacy Notification.