Supply Chain World - Volume 7, Issue 3 - 84

manufacturing purple

a top player in the bed-in-the-box sector," Director of
Communications Savannah Hobbs says, adding that the
company has earned awards for its work.
These include being named the Utah Manufacturer
of the Year in 2018, as well as being ranked as one of the
fastest-growing companies in its state for three years in
a row. Purple also appeared in the film "Ralph Breaks the
Internet" and had an award-winning marketing campaign
featuring comedians Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim.
"They were really fun to work with," Hobbs adds.

Making Accommodations
Schultz joined Purple in January 2018 after gaining
experience in the furniture, sports and outdoors sectors.
When he started, "We were at $200 million in annual revenue," he recalls. "We had a lot of hyper growth and not a
lot of infrastructure to support that."
Under his leadership, the company adjusted by implementing a full warehouse operation. "We also entered

Supply Chain World VOLUME 7, ISSUE 3

nearly 1,400 wholesale stores," Schultz says, noting that
these include retailers such as Mattress Firm, Macy's and
Furniture Row.
"Those are our three largest wholesale partners," he
says, adding that the company has started to consider
a strategy of opening its own brick-and-mortar showrooms, which currently includes a factory outlet store in
Salt Lake City, Utah.
But another step for the company was adding white
glove delivery to its operations. "That was a departure
in our supply chain," he admits. "Before that, everything went right off into the production line into a
FedEx trailer."
When Purple started the process, it began increasing
its capacity and began forward stocking inventory. It also
conducted research on the strengths and weaknesses of
white glove delivery, as well as customer expectations.
During this process, Schultz personally visited a home
delivery trade show and interviewed providers. "I started
thinking of different strategies at the time," he says, noting that one area where Purple had to evolve its strategy
involved the weight of its products.
At the time, the company found that it was producing
mattresses that were too heavy for its preferred partner, FedEx, to deliver. "If it's 150 pounds, they will take
it," he says.
However, if the weight of a package went over that limit, the carrier sent it back. When Schultz conducted tests
with different delivery partners, he discovered that white
glove delivery services could be just as fast as regular
delivery services.
"We onboarded two providers and a hybrid model for
white glove," he recalls, noting that this included consolidating the inventory of seven of its locations into two
facilities in Salt Lake City and Columbus, Ohio.
Those locations now handle all orders that weigh
more than 150 pounds and can reach anywhere in the
lower 48 states. In addition, by consolidating, "We
brought our footprint down to less than a quarter of
what it was," he says.
Its facility in Utah, he adds, fulfills orders that weigh
150 pounds or less. With this structure, "We're able to get
everywhere fairly quickly without hampering or increasing our delivery times," he says.
"We also were able to use our FedEx contract to reduce
freight cost," he says, noting that the company also has
reduced its damaged and lost product rate. "That's how

https://www.rhinehartoil.com/

Supply Chain World - Volume 7, Issue 3

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Supply Chain World - Volume 7, Issue 3