Outsourced Logistics

Weber Distribution, a leading third party logistics and supply chain management provider for 85 years, announced today that it has hired Dennis McDonough as vice president, client solutions and Robert Cesario as director of operations, effective immediately.

McDonough joins Weber with more than 26 years of industry experience in logistics-related services and sales. In the position of vice president, client solutions he is responsible for developing new business and managing the needs of Weber’s existing accounts in the area of import and retail.

McDonough most recently worked for Aspen Distribution as vice president, service solutions where he established the company’s strategy within the retail, electronics and healthcare industries. McDonough was also responsible for overseeing human resources with a staff of approximately 450 employees and he previously held the title of vice president, transportation and value-added services for the company.

His extensive experience also includes: president/partner for Liberty Logistics Services based in Ontario, California; director of business development for Burnham Service Corporation in Atlanta, Georgia; regional sales manager for USCO Distribution Services, Inc. in Naugatuck, Connecticut; vice president operations and sales for RPM Transportation Inc./Royal Hawaiian Express; and warehouse manager for Interamerican Public Distribution Corporation.

McDonough is president of the Distribution Management Association (DMA) and belongs to the Warehouse Education and Research Council (WERC), the Los Angeles Transportation Club (LATC) and the National Confectionary Association (NCA).

Cesario comes to Weber with more than 24 years of industry experience, including 16 years of food and retail experience and eight years in third party logistics. As director of operations, Cesario is responsible for Weber’s Inland Empire facilities, which consists of four distribution centers including two in Rancho Cucamonga, California and two in Fontana, totaling 1,047,566 square feet. In this capacity, he provides overall direction at each facility and has four direct reports who oversee 132 Weber employees.

He previously worked as general manager for RPM Consolidated Services in Rancho Cucamonga, California where he oversaw warehouse operations and supported corporate sales efforts. He held the same position for NYK Logistics supervising 8 employees and a staff of 265. Cesario also worked as operations manager for Montgomery Ward and as shift manager for Stop & Shop from 1985 to 1997.

About Weber Distribution

Based in Los Angeles, Weber Distribution has evolved into a nationwide provider of logistics solutions. Weber’s expertise includes non-asset freight management, asset-based LTL and TL services, including temperature-controlled, dedicated and shared warehousing, distribution, cross-docking/pool distribution, transloading, network optimization modeling and analysis, retail compliance, order fulfillment, material handling, supply chain management, real estate development, and personnel staffing.

Weber specializes in providing its clients with unique logistics solutions primarily to these vertical markets:

 Import

 Retail

 Food & Beverage

 Consumer Packaged Goods

 Chemical/Specialty Products

 Paper

Weber serves many well-known and respected companies such as Walmart, Target, Safeway, General Mills, Hershey, Nestlé, Applica Consumer Products, California Innovations, Scholastic Books, and PPG Industries. As a result of its on-going innovation, experience and dedication, Weber has been the recipient of numerous industry awards, including:

 Inbound Logistics’ Top 100 3PLs

 The Los Angeles Business Journal’s Top 100 Privately-Held Companies

 Food Logistics Magazine’s Top 70 3PLs

 Food Logistics Magazine’s FL100 listing of the top technology solution and service providers to the food industry.

 SupplyChainBrain’s 100 Great Supply Chain Partners

RALEIGH, NC, October 26, 2009 — A new Executive Briefing by business strategy and supply chain expert Dr. James A. Tompkins advises CEOs on how to turn the economic recovery to their advantage. The Great Comeback: Your Company’s Secret Weapon reveals the path to creating a Comeback Plan, reducing future risks and pulling ahead of the competition.

“The global economy is on a steep uphill climb, and we know from past experience that lead changes always occur on the uphill,” says Dr. Tompkins, President and CEO of Tompkins Associates. “Companies that have a Comeback Plan in place now will be the ones that come out on top and will be ready for new growth opportunities that are sure to arise after the recession.”

Most economic experts agree that the recession is waning, but there are lingering questions about how the recovery will look and feel. In a recent study by Forbes Insights (PDF), C-level and senior executives at global enterprises indicated that aligning strategy and operations will be essential to their continued success after the downturn.

Dr. Tompkins notes that the study, which found that only half of the respondents have updated Comeback Plans, is in line with what he sees in the marketplace today across all industries.

“CEOs and senior executives are under enormous pressure to cut costs and prepare for economic recovery at the same time, and most are not prepared for what lies ahead,” he says. “Having a solid post-recession plan that covers strategy and all aspects of the supply chain is a secret weapon in this Great Comeback.”

Highlights of the Executive Briefing include:

* Two new views on the recession and why recovery timing depends on when your sector hits bottom.

* How the recovery has taken a different course than anticipated and why the supply chain plays a key role.

* Five steps to recovery and growth to use as a guideline in developing a Comeback Plan.

* Budget planning and implementation lead times, and the real shape that economic recovery will take.

To download a complimentary copy of the briefing and view a video on The Great Comeback, visit http://www.tompkinsinc.com/greatcomeback/download-page.asp

About Dr. Tompkins and Tompkins Associates:

Dr. Tompkins, President and CEO of Tompkins Associates, is an internationally known authority on leadership, business planning, logistics, manufacturing, material handling, outsourcing, and supply chain best practices. He has written or contributed to more than 30 books, hosts the Global Supply Chain Podcast series, and writes the GoGoGo! blog. Tompkins Associates designs and integrates global end-to-end solutions for companies that embrace supply chain excellence. For more information, visit www.tompkinsinc.com. Subscribe to Tompkins Associates’ newsletter, Supply Chain Edge.

SANTA FE SPRINGS, California – Working with major grocery chains and retailers nationwide, Weber Distribution, a leading third party logistics and supply chain management provider for 85 years, announced today that it has launched a new program called Consolidated Express Service to offer set delivery times for its customers, as well as provide Less Than Truckload (LTL) expedited services at Full Truckload (FTL) rates.

Weber introduced a similar express consolidation program for its confectionary customers, including The Hershey Company, Nestlé, and Ghirardelli several years ago, and is now expanding the service to its food, beverage, health & beauty, and pharmaceutical customer base. Weber is consolidating its customers’ LTL orders with other LTL orders being shipped to the same location by forming strategic alliances with grocery and retail distribution centers, big box retailers and institutional food service docks such as VONS, Target and Walmart, to name a few.

“We were looking for a way to save our customers money and to reduce our use of fuel for the environment so Consolidated Express Service was the perfect solution,” said Mike Epeneter, Senior Vice President, Logistics Services. “By working with our consignees to establish pre-existing appointment times, we can consolidate our customers’ freight and deliver the order to one location. As a result, our customers are able to share in the savings generated by using fewer trucks, burning less diesel fuel, greening of the supply chain and incurring lower wait times for the delivery of their products. It’s really a win-win for our customers, the consignees and Weber.”

Another value-added service Weber is offering through Consolidated Express Service is “Preferred Status” at the consignees’ dock. “Establishing set appointment times with our consignees has allowed us to build a great relationship with the receiving departments, which has reduced and in most cases eliminated potential chargebacks for our customers,” said John Laws, Weber’s Director, Transportation. “And by controlling our own fleet, we can provide our customers with greater visibility to their order and delivery status.”

The Consolidated Express Service program is linked directly to Weber’s Transportation Management System (TMS) to ensure real-time updates of customers’ shipments once they arrive at the consignee’s dock. “This adds flexibility in planning sales and fulfillment of our customers’ orders by ensuring we have timely and accurate information at their disposal,” said Laws.

About Weber Distribution

Based in Los Angeles, Weber Distribution has evolved into a nationwide provider of logistics solutions. Weber’s expertise includes non-asset freight management, various value-added services, asset-based LTL and TL services, including temperature-controlled, dedicated and shared warehousing, distribution, cross-docking/pool distribution, transloading, network optimization modeling and analysis, retail compliance, order fulfillment, material handling, supply chain management, real estate development, and personnel staffing.

Weber specializes in providing its clients with unique logistics solutions primarily to these vertical markets:

 Import

 Retail

 Food & Beverage

 Consumer Packaged Goods

 Chemical/Specialty Products

 Paper

Weber serves many well-known and respected companies such as Wal-Mart, Target, Safeway, General Mills, Hershey, Nestlé, Applica Consumer Products, California Innovations, Scholastic Books, and PPG Industries. As a result of its on-going innovation, experience and dedication, Weber has been the recipient of numerous industry awards, including:

 Inbound Logistics’ Top 100 3PLs

 The Los Angeles Business Journal’s Top 100 Privately-Held Companies

 Food Logistics Magazine’s Top 70 3PLs

 Food Logistics Magazine’s FL100 listing of the top technology solution and service providers to the food industry.

 SupplyChainBrain’s 100 Great Supply Chain Partners

For more information about Weber Distribution and its services, please call 877-624-2700 or visit www.weberdistribution.com.

Have transportation freight rates bottomed out yet? This has been one of the two most frequently asked client questions this summer - along with “is it too late to bid my freight out to take advantage of recent market conditions”.

Although no one has a crystal ball to definitively answer the first question, ChemLogix’s market data since May 09 implies the market has probably bottomed out by late summer.  The second question can be answered with a simple answer - yes.  The time is still ripe to bid freight rates today but…don’t wait too long or you will miss this year’s golden opportunity to generate freight rate savings.

ChemLogix has conducted numerous freight benchmark studies and bids this summer. Our studies have shown an average freight savings opportunity of between 10-25% of combined line haul and fuel surcharge costs.  Clients with very well managed freight costs have achieve freight savings opportunities of less than 6%.  Savings opportunities for these clients tend to be surgical, lane-level adjustments to only a few lanes.  The majority of our rate studies this year have found savings opportunities in excess of 10% which justified modal specific freight bids.

With that stated, I will also say the results of several bids conducted by ChemLogix in the latter portions of this summer have shown a transition in rates offered by carriers today.  Although significant savings were achieved through these bids, we saw either a slowdown in rate decreases or a stabilization of rates on similar lanes between bids. This trend, combined with other market indicators, such as, improving client load counts, increasing restrictions in getting carrier capacity in many markets, and hearing weekly that carrier business has started to boom over the over the last few months, all indicate conditions appear to be reversing themselves by summer’s end.

ChemLogix still feels that current market conditions can and will permit great savings opportunities for those companies who take advantage of conditions now!  However, these conditions probably will not exist in three months.   We feel the market will begin to transition to higher rates at the end of the 4QTR09 as the national and world economies begin to recover.

If you think your company’s rates are high today then consider bidding your freight immediately.  If you are not sure how your freight rates fair against market conditions today, then have your rates benchmarked first and tie any bid activity to some savings trigger.  As a rule, ChemLogix feels savings opportunities of 5% or more should trigger a bid activity.  Companies with estimated savings of less than 5% should secure existing rates with existing core carriers for at least one year and go after identified savings opportunities using surgical, rate adjustments on a lane-by- lane basis only.  Few if any carriers will agree to more than a one-year rate contract today.