Project:

Unilever

Fleet Management of all Streets and Ben & Jerry’s Freezer/Refrigeration Assets

Client: Unilever New Zealand

Following discussions ending in December 2020, from March 2021, BrandSpec has begun management and maintenance of Unilever’s Ice-Cream POS Freezer Asset’s for their mainstream and premium ice-cream Brands: Streets, and Ben & Jerry’s.

Challenge

Unilever’s most significant sales investment in service of the OOH ice-cream channel is Point-of-sale Freezer Assets and the signage and decals that accompany them.

For some years, Unilever looked for a specialist provider who understood the nuances of this sector of FMCG plus had the software and business intelligence ‘smarts’ - along with practical logistics and refrigeration-repair capability - to enhance their performance, efficiency, and decision making around this critical back-room service.

As part of this, a new provider would inherit a database known to have errors due to the many parties who touched the operation, the number of assets, customer end-points, and the grassroots business industry involved.

Scale

Approximately 9000 freezer assets throughout New Zealand
13000 possible delivery points or asset locations
Minimum of 1000sqm of warehousing space
1500+ freezer movements to/from customers per year
6-10 containers of new assets per annum

Deliverables

BrandSpec set up a dedicated warehouse nearby our primary operations to isolate the challenge and ensure data / physical integrity.

Staffed by two dedicated team members plus an on-demand maintenance and repair resource network nationwide, the whole BrandSpec operation is managed by high-care teams who understand the challenges of the FMCG Sectors faced by Unilever.

To maximise visibility and data capture to enhance decisions, BrandSpec utilised our next generation software designed to support tracking and management of powered assets over multiple locations. Knowing the inefficiencies of traditional approaches to asset management, we target a 25% operational cost reduction over incumbent solution. To achieve this we track asset value, inwards shipping cost, storage cost, outwards shipping, life time-frame in market, on-site repair tickets, failure numbers, repair costs per unit, administration costs, cleaning and materials to ensure the best possible clarity of decision making. This reduces movements, bad purchase decisions, overstocking, wasted travel, premature/delayed end-of-life, and pointless repairing costs.

Having proved our hypothesis, we’ve extended this solution to service all powered asset types of in-store display assets in retail channels.