Eric Galinetti, Retail Key Account Director at FM Logistic on the changing face of the retail industry

As the European 3PL Awards voting ends in two weeks time, eft highlights what the award means to one of the 2013 winners and 2014 nominee

 
eft interviews Eric Galinetti, Retail Key Account Director at FM Logistic, last year’s European Customer Choice Award Winner in the ‘Best 3PL for Retail Supply Chains’ category.
 
1. Congratulations again on winning last year’s Award as the best 3PL for Retail Supply Chains – What did winning this award mean for FM Logistic?
This award has recognised the ongoing work that FML has been putting in adding value to its customers' supply chain and keeping, year over year, a good growth dynamic in all its countries. This award is for us the recognition of our place of reference for retailers in Europe and encourages investments on-going to be part of the leading suppliers for this sector.
 
2. What do you think differentiated FM Logistic from competitors and made customers bring you in front of DHL, APL Logistics and other competitors?
For us, the job of the logistics services provider is to foster the development of its retail customers by designing and implementing a bespoke supply chain organisation. We can implement dedicated, shared or collaborative solutions speacially adapted to the customer strategy and its different product ranges. In the long run, we will drive the evolution of the implemented solution in order to make the supply chain an asset of our customer competitiveness.
 
Today, Retail represents almost 30% of Group's turnover, we have operations in more than 9 countries and over 600 000 sqm. and we have been developping partnerships with the major European retailers.
 
3. You’ve been nominated yet again within this category, congratulations! How do you ensure that continuous improvement for your customers?
Our continuous improvement strategy has two major pilars:
 
The first one is about operations performance and strategy fit.  Our customers have a single contact and they meet regularly to ensure the running solution is in line with its strategy, a monthly KPI review that mesures operations capacity to deliver on what's planned and an annual satisfaction query that provides consolidated view of satisfaction and performance. This information is used to nurture our continous improvement program. The program is based on lean principles and aims the creation of added value to our customers and the elimination of wastes.
Our rules are: permanent questioning (always look for improvement), strict necessary (eliminate non added value) and collective intelligence (get everybody involved).
 
The second one is the innovation. Whether in terms of services or new technologies, we keep updating our offer. For exemple, in Poland we deployed the "Put to Light" system to order picking effectiveness and quality and in Russia we are now the leading provider that’s to the acquisition of a new know-how: controlled temperature logistics, key for the Russian market.
 
4. Where do you see the biggest challenges in the next five years within the retail industry?
The retail sector is in permanent evolution. We have been seeing the development of three major trends:
1 - The revival of the "convienience store" and "city" models and theirs smaller stores located in the heart of the cities.
2 - The continuous growth of private labels share of demand.
3- Multi-channel, combination of traditional outlets and the internet
 
5. How is FM Logistic preparing for these challenges?
We know that to provide optimised on-shelf availability and streamlined distribution costs no matter what store concept ans sales model, solutions customisation is key. This involves agility, adaptability and the capacity to align our servicing strategy. This is how we are preparing for these challenges thanks to customer knowledge, innovation and continuous improvement focus.
 
 
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