Manufacturing Executive - January/February 2009 - (Page 32) OW N V R E S T'S HA T ! E C C&C GROUP CENTRALIZES DISTRIBUTION AND DEPLOYS DEMAND FORECASTING SOFTWARE TO HELP REVERSE FORTUNES FOR BRANDS LIKE BULMER AND MAGNERS. By Mark Halper T 32 here’s no place like Ireland for an original turn of phrase. Apologies, then, to Irish cider and whiskey maker C&C Group, because nothing describes its recent supply chain revamp better than does an old cliché: Less is more. In a counterintuitive move to quicken delivery time, the struggling €679 million purveyor of Tullamore Dew Whiskey, Magners Cider, and Bulmer Cider last year eliminated most of the warehouses that it had set up near its cider customers. Less storage was to equal more delivery speed, not to mention much needed savings. It was all part of a flip in which the Blackrock, Ireland-based producer is trying to transform itself into one driven by customer demands. “It’s a fundamental change,” says C&C Managing Director of Supply Chain Aidan Murphy. “We were very much a production-led company, not demand-led. We said, ‘In order to take inventory out, we’ll make product the customer wants. Manufacturing Executive JAN/FEB-09
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