Specialty Fulfillment Blueprint
Belgium's Chocolate Source (formerly Belgium's Best Chocolates, Inc.) was established in 1998 with one mission, to bring the best chocolates from Belgium to the US market.
Belgium's Chocolate Source is the exclusive importer of Nirvana Belgian Chocolates: a premium all-natural chocolate line including gourmet truffles, seasonal chocolate assortments in gift boxes, and artisanal gourmet specialties such as fruit jellies (pates de fruits) and all-natural marzipan, nougat and other specialties.
Challenges
- Diverse set of customers serviced through multiple sales channels and order streams (e.g. B2C, brick and mortar retailers, on-line retailers, and business promotions)
- Integration and interfacing to numerous e-commerce sites that push order activity
- Temperature control warehouse environment
- Value-added gift wrapping with custom-printed cards
- Significant seasonal peaks at Valentine's Day, Easter, Mother's Day, and Christmas
- Expiration date tracking and management
- Product conversion of cased chocolates
- Pick & pack fulfillment
- Consolidated warehouse configured to service the entire U.S. customer base
Solutions
Barrett has made improvements to both systemic and operational processes. Corrective actions address any issue that might lead to a service failure. Barrett made improvements to the system to raise awareness of imminent expiration dates and enhanced system interfaces with the 7 different on-line retailers. Finally, Barrett developed detailed execution plans to prepare for seasonal volume spikes.
