Managing distribution at a beverage company can be a wild ride at times. You have high demand, a fragile product, and quick turnarounds to manage, all while trying to keep employees happy.
At Veryable, we’ve helped multiple beverage distribution companies add flexible capacity to meet demand through our on-demand labor marketplace. They’re happy with the results they achieved, and we’re happy to continue serving some of the premier distributors in the space.
In this article, you’ll learn how on-demand labor can help you match capacity to demand while lifting some of the burden off your current employees.
Beverage companies have demand throughout the year. But you know that there are spikes in certain seasons like the 100 days of summer when people crave refreshment more than usual, such as:
There are also spikes in demand manufactured by marketing, such as store promotions, when products will be moving faster than usual.
When spikes happened in the past, you’ve probably had to ask people to stay late. Maybe you felt lucky to be out of there before 2 a.m. on a busy night. Or maybe you were fortunate enough to see it coming and staff up in anticipation. But then you found yourself stuck with extra workers you didn’t have work for.
With on-demand labor, you can bring in extra workers just in time when you find out about a spike in demand. You can post your work to Veryable and quickly receive bids from local workers who are looking for short-term work options. Then you can select workers with the specific skill set you need, and the next day they can be in your facility working. Instead of depending on overtime so you can manage unexpected work, you’ll be able to get exactly the help you need without burning out your employees. And you won’t have to overstaff in anticipation of seasons of high demand any more, either.
The bulk of the work done in beverage companies by on-demand labor is in building orders for shipments. This requires the ability to lift heavy objects and might require the ability to drive an electric pallet jack. There are many Operators on the Veryable platform with these skills.
Beyond order picking, there’s plenty of clean up work that on-demand workers can do to save your full-time employees from having to stay late. You can let your FTEs focus on what they do best and have Operators come in as warehouse support when needed. You can post these Ops at the trucks, at the pallet wrapper, and anywhere else help might be needed.
If you’re like many beverage companies, you might be asking, “What about our family culture?” That’s a valid point, and we respect the tight-knit approach that many businesses in this industry take.
That’s why we point out that Veryable helps you support your company and its employees, not replace them all.
Think of how many times your workers would rather not stay late. They’d rather go to their kids’ ball games or birthday parties, or maybe enjoy a cold beverage of their own with friends after work. With extra help from Veryable workers to clean up the shop or power through demand spikes, your workers won’t have to miss these events.
Veryable is helping companies like yours meet the growing demands on the supply chain. As the US reopens from the pandemic and the reshoring trend continues, now is the time to be part of revitalizing the economy by meeting workers where they are with flexible work options. And you can give your full-time employees a little breathing room while you’re at it.
Wholesale beverage distributor Gold Coast Eagle was well into their busy season but was struggling to keep up with orders. Employees were working 6 days a week + overtime, and managers and salespeople were having to work in the warehouse to help load the trucks. They didn’t just need more people, they needed the operational flexibility to be able to respond to demand in real-time.
By building a labor pool skilled in order selection, repack, janitorial duties, and general warehouse work that they could pull from as needed, Gold Coast gained the ability to match headcount to demand on a daily basis. As a result they were able to significantly improve their on-time delivery rate while simultaneously reducing overtime and turnover. In just one year this approach saved them $274k in labor costs.
Without an on-demand labor pool, Gold Coast Eagle would have had to choose between turning down orders and missing out on new revenue, or maintaining a suboptimal on-time delivery rate for their customers which would have hurt their bottom line in numerous ways. In their situation, trying to bring in additional workers through direct hiring mid-season would have been too slow and time consuming with all the administrative work required, and a tremendous waste of resources when the additional help isn’t needed for more than a short period of time. Staffing agencies with their restrictive contracts and lack of control over worker selection had also been a fruitless experience in the past for Gold Coast.
To read the full case study, click here.
Homepage: On-Demand Labor for Food & Beverage Companies
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