Logistics: an essential link for V33

“98% of the products we sell worldwide come from Domblans, in the Jura region!”, says Frédéric Dubois, Logistics Manager at V33, a manufacturer of paints and wood products under the V33, Libéron, Cecil Professionnel, Hypnotik and Plastor brands. To serve its customers (logistics warehouses for home-improvement chains, directly supplied stores, professional and private customers through e-commerce websites), the company relies on two logistics sites in France. One, measuring 4,500 m2, is operated by service provider Jacky Perennot and is located in Courlaoux (39), around 20 kilometers from the Domblans plant. The other, the main facility, is operated in-house and now covers 22,000 m² after four expansions. “When the plant was established in 1957, logistics was an integral part of the company’s strategy,” explains Frédéric Dubois. “The size of the land acquired at the time made successive expansions possible.” When the company needed to expand its logistics capacity and improve responsiveness, V33 turned to a logistics service provider to secure a second site. These two warehouses now manage approximately [missing number] SKUs, 600 orders and 20,000 order lines per day. In addition to supplying its Italian, Polish and UK depots, they serve, among others, customers in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain and Portugal, as well as some customers in Italy. “The proximity of production and logistics enables us to optimize transportation and reduce its carbon footprint,” says the Logistics Manager.

The two French platforms are supplemented by three local logistics platforms in Italy (a 3,000 m2 outsourced site), Poland (approximately 3,100 m2) and the United Kingdom (approximately 2,500 m²). This European network is linked to a distribution model that promotes shared shipments for certain customers that have chosen cross-docking. In this case, orders are prepared in one of V33’s warehouses and delivered to one of the seven platforms dedicated to this organization. There, they are consolidated with products from other manufacturers before being transported in the same transport unit to the end customer. This shared organizational model enables the V33 Group to ensure strong, sustainable on-time service performance and consequently reduce its carbon footprint, in line with the targets announced in 2020 as part of its commitment to the FRET21 program, led by AUTF and supported by Ademe.

Outside the scope of these specialized retail chains, which benefit from a specific organization, V33 also had to revise its logistics master plan from 2019 onward. With rising online sales, the Domblans site was reaching capacity. The Group therefore decided to rethink its organization, including by introducing a new WMS published by Hardis Group. During the functional analysis, a core model was created to speed up deployments across V33’s various logistics warehouses in France, the United Kingdom and Poland. “Our previous WMS was not very scalable because we had developed a great deal of customization around the solution. That is why we made a point of following the standards of Hardis Group’s WMS, to avoid falling into the same traps. To establish the core model, we of course discussed their flows with our subsidiaries in order to take account of their specific features, while always avoiding the need for custom development,” Frédéric Dubois explains. While this was not possible before, several orders can now be prepared at the same time and several operators can work on the same order before it is consolidated at the shipping dock. Following implementation of the solution, productivity gains were recorded across the four deployed sites.

“It is essential for us to retain control of logistics,” says Frédéric Dubois. “We want to continue producing, distributing and delivering our products, with the pride of being able to do so from the Jura region!”.