Setting the gold standard

Amer Sports is a global group of the world’s most recognised and respected sports and outdoor brands, including Arc’teryx, Salomon, Wilson and Atomic. The brands set the standard for innovation and quality, not just for products – but for supply chain performance too.

Marco Salzmann, VP Global Transportation at Amer Sports, knows this challenge well. His team sits at the end of a complex global chain.

"Navigating the needs of the brands can be challenging because the pressure rests on transportation. We are last in the chain, and the expectation is that if we say 70 days, we deliver in 70 days. The cargo must be in the DC when we’ve said it will. If not, customers could cancel their orders," he explains.

But global disruptions had pushed what should have been 70-day lead times to 85 or 90 days. And in a lifestyle market where consumer loyalty is hard-won, out-of-stock products mean lost sales. Supply chain reliability is everything.

“Amer Sports operates in a high-performance segment of the market, and they rightly expect that same high performance from their logistics partners.” – Diogo Garrido, Global Account Manager at Maersk

A need for reliability and control

After several years of partnership in North America, Amer Sports invited Maersk to tender for its European ocean freight business in early 2025. It was during these conversations that Kinga de Jong, Senior Product Enablement Manager at Maersk, introduced a product that seemed almost too good to be true: Delivery Guarantee.

Maersk Delivery Guarantee is a premium end-to-end logistics solution that ensures a confirmed lead time to the final destination. Once your delivery is guaranteed, Maersk works behind the scenes to ensure goods get there on time, even in the face of disruption. The solution boosts predictability, cuts the need for buffer stock, and prevents the need for expensive last-minute air freight.

“Having an agreed transit time sounded very good – reliability is extremely important to us. But at that time, schedule reliability for ocean was around 55%, and Maersk guaranteed not only high ocean reliability but 98% inbound performance to our warehouses. How could they do it?" – Marco Salzmann, VP Global Transportation at Amer Sports

Maersk Delivery Guarantee: Ensuring reliable, on-time delivery

The answer lies in what underpins Delivery Guarantee: Maersk’s asset ownership and control over ocean, terminals and inland services; the options our network provides; and priority on loading, stowage positions, and discharge sequence.

Maersk’s control means we can anticipate delays; respond early to disruptions; and find alternative routes and modes. Delivery Guarantee containers are flagged for prioritisation throughout operations, stowed on deck for accelerated load/discharge, and automatically reviewed for delivery risk every 24 hours, to ensure that its transport plan has the best likelihood of meeting the guarantee.

As a guaranteed lead time at a container-level, Delivery Guarantee succeeds when ocean, feeder, barge, and terminal operators, along with inland/rail dispatchers and customs brokers, are digitally connected and collaborate towards the same outcome.

For Amer Sports, the proposition was compelling enough to begin with a few containers per week on its lanes from Asia to France.

“We have trust in the service and in the people. Yes there’s a cost, but we were willing to try it to reach that level of reliability.” – Marco Salzmann, VP Global Transportation at Amer Sports

If anything disrupted the plan, Maersk handled the rerouting. Kinga de Jong explains:

“On our lanes to Amer Sport's warehouse in the south of France, we use a chosen discharge port and a rail connection as standard. But if anything goes wrong, we have alternatives lined up to respond, including different discharge ports and full trucking.”

On the lane into Austria – home to the largest ski factory in the world – predictability really matters as ski equipment is inherently seasonal. Kinga de Jong adds:

“In one instance, containers going into Altenmarkt, Austria couldn’t catch the planned train due to a strike in one of the ports. Our Delivery Guarantee Team went above and beyond to hire two drivers who could switch mid-way and continue driving, in order to deliver the container on time. All without any additional cost or worry for the customer.”

Increased certainty in the face of disruption

Reliable lead times mean brands can plan inventory cycles with confidence.

“We have successfully transitioned from a reactive to a proactive operational model. The impact was best summarised by my colleague in France, who noted that we have gained a surplus capacity. By automating and offloading the operational heavy lifting, our team is now free to pivot away from manual troubleshooting and toward high-value strategic initiatives that drive the business forward”, says Marco Salzmann.

At the time of writing, Maersk has achieved a 99.1% on-time delivery rate for Amer Sports. Quarterly reviews give both teams full visibility of performance data, and where there are exceptions, Maersk owns the resolution and provides the value.

“With Delivery Guarantee, during our business reviews we can spend around 20% of our time on performance management and 80% discussing where we can find even more value together, lane by lane and initiative by initiative.” – Diogo Garrido, Global Account Manager at Maersk

“You pay a bit more for a premium service but, if you look at the whole impact on your supply chain, you save money and reduce headaches. There’s always something interrupting your supply chain, but with this Maersk picks up the responsibility for on-time delivery and offers peace of mind. If you think more holistically about your entire supply chain, the value you get is greater than the sum of its parts.” – Kinga de Jong, Senior Product Enablement Manager at Maersk

Building a partnership for the future

What started with a handful of containers is now growing rapidly.

“The reliability has had an extremely positive impact,” Marco Salzmann explains. “It’s like clockwork, delivering exactly what was promised. It’s much easier for our brands’ planning cycles and stock visibility. When you can trust the arrival date, you eliminate the ‘buffer’ time previously wasted in the supply chain, allowing our local teams to execute with much higher precision.”

“The solution Maersk built for their need, focused on reliability and peace of mind, provided value that was simple and immediate to see… and it works!” – Diogo Garrido, Global Account Manager at Maersk

For Amer Sports, reliability is the foundation on which every brand promise is built and – with Delivery Guarantee – it’s now something they can count on.

Maersk Delivery Guarantee removes the uncertainty and firefighting from your supply chain, so you can plan with confidence. If you’d like to know more, get in touch.