us get away from all the manual steps we were doing. “We’ve become a lot more system driven,” he adds. “Alpine increased our pro tability in a short time to get us to the billion-dollar mark.” Every order at MONAT gets cartonized. Once the size of a carton is determined, the workforce might be divvied up among 10 pick lanes. Some lanes might mirror activity going on in other lanes but it’s a way to smooth and balance things to avoid congestion and the company can get the volumes out as quickly as possible. “The fewer touches the better
Alpine has encountered that scenario with its client MONAT Global Corp., a multi-level marketing company that sells haircare, skincare, and wellness products. Founded in 2014, MONAT operates primarily in the e-commerce space and its KPI (key performance indicator) is to get their products in the hands of customers in four days or less after an order is placed. “We contracted with Alpine because they offered the best solution for our growth strategy and helped us increase ef ciency,” says Alfredo Mantilla, director of global warehouse operations for MONAT. “Their technology helped
For example, Alpine counts pet food distributors among its clients and should a 22-pound bag of a certain variety of dog food runs out, their warehouse management system can pivot to sending out three 8-pound bags of the same variety. Incentive purchases can also throw a kink in operations. “You can service some customers by doing a bulk pull but sometimes there might be an extra layer of dif culty,” says David Kressin, managing director at Alpine. “A client might offer a purchase incentive—like a grab bag or promotions gift that must be combined with the bulk pull.”
SUBSCRIPTION PRESCRIPTION While demand is not quite as high as it was during the height of the pandemic, monthly—and in some cases, weekly—subscription boxes continue to be popular. From curated selections of beauty products to food plans to hobby-related boxes, consumers keep signing up for and eagerly anticipating their personalized shipments. With inflation driving up food and gas prices, subscription meal delivery services have been facing particular problems lately. “It’s a massive challenge to keep our shipping costs under control,” says Mike Wargocki, vice president of manufacturing at Sunbasket, a San Francisco- based company that ships members fresh organic and sustainable ingredients every week, allowing them to cook their own meals. In the wake of big carriers raising prices to cover their costs, Sunbasket increasingly relies on smaller regional carriers. “Regional carriers have higher delivery percentages and they have more capacity,” says Wargocki. Sunbasket has a large manufacturing and fulfillment site on each coast. “We have to produce dozens of dierent ingredients that change each week,” Wargocki explains. The company’s California facility fulfills orders everywhere from
Washington state through Texas while its New Jersey location handles the rest of the country. Menus reflect seasonality. Local crops and what is available
at certain times of year near Sunbasket’s California facility, in particular, help reduce the cost of inventory. The company specializes in organic produce and since the majority of it is grown in California or in Arizona during the winter, East Coast subscribers experience higher pricing. Food cost is proportionally higher because of the logistics of getting product to the East Coast. Since those customers are later in the supply chain, maintaining optimum temperatures throughout the product’s journey is critical to providing a good customer experience. “It’s all about the security of the load, making sure no one is tampering with a food delivery,” says Wargocki. Sunbasket puts temperature trackers on the trucks to ensure ideal temps are constantly being maintained and then checks each load as it arrives to ensure there has been no abuse of these processes. “Getting products delivered has become a lifestyle for consumers now,” Wargocki says. “The whole market is a much bigger, more complex space than it was before the pandemic.”
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