By Susan Elise Campbell
At headquarters in Malta, Arnoff Moving & Storage has built an enhanced logistics and delivery system for clients who need warehousing, packing and shipping services as their inventory is transferred or sold.
According to Daniel Arnoff, chief relationship officer and fifth-generation member of the family-owned business, the Arnoff Global Logistics division has outgrown its warehousing space and will soon break ground on a new 100,000-120,000-square-foot facility to suit their expansion trajectory.
Arnoff said the new warehouse is necessitated by the growth their clients are experiencing and by the influx of new clients who need a streamlined and cost-effective way to store and ship goods.
“The goods could be retail items purchased on the internet or parts we stock that a local manufacturer might need if their machine goes down,” he said.
Arnoff said companies can better focus on their core business if they outsource to this division the kinds of logistic services they specialize in. Doing so is more flexible and cost effective than maintaining inventory and handling shipping themselves for two main reasons: outsourcing eliminates certain fixed costs, and it allows economies of scale clients cannot achieve on their own.
“We charge clients based on actual storage space used and volume of orders they give us any given month,” he said. “Otherwise the client would have the fixed overhead of a warehouse whether they use all or a part of it, a staff to pack and ship products, and a processing system in place.”
Noting that some companies have seasonal businesses and could even deplete their inventories during the year, Arnoff said clients are charged less as inventories go down and given more space as they get their inventories back up.
“A company basically eliminates their logistics fee during their slow season,” he said. “When they need us to ramp back up again we are right there and ready.”
Especially for a smaller or start-up business when it has no orders or inventory, Arnoff said the savings from their flexible services “can really impact that company’s bottom line.”
Arnoff Global Logistics owns and operates its proprietary logistics system, which Arnoff said is a digital computer program that allows them to put bar codes on every item coming into their warehouses. The code carries such information as a description of the item and its location, size and weight, date in and out, and allows Arnoff to track other specific data points for clients if they need it.
This system ties into the client’s order management system and can feed back to the client when inventory is running out, Arnoff said.
“We have a client in London that sells very high-end items online,” he said. “An order comes in through their website and once it is paid for, that order comes automatically into Arnoff’s inventory management system and alerts our team to pull, pack and ship the item.”
Customers can track their shipment online and so can the client company, and more. The system allows clients to easily monitor inventory levels, see how fast certain items are selling, and “prepare to keep levels where they need to be to support their customers’ purchasing,” Arnoff said.
“We can set up parameters in our system so the client will get an automated email telling them it’s time to reorder this SKU,” he said. “Generally the onboarding process is part of the cost to partner with them so that the account is a success.”
Onboarding refers to the in-depth details Arnoff collects about the items and will be relied upon to suggest the most cost effective methods to ship them.
“Because we are a multi-client warehouse, we may have one company shipping 20 items that week and another company 50, and another 100,” said Arnoff. “Now we have the buying power of shipping 170 units and pass the savings on to all three clients.”
Another of the division’s offerings is consolidation services, which can be short-term or longer-term.
“If there is a chain building a new store or renovating a restaurant, or example, we will be the central receiving point for all the materials from various manufacturers,” said Arnoff. “That could be equipment, signage, furnishings, décor, all of which is then delivered to the site all at once on an Arnoff truck.”
Arnoff staff then unpacks and assembles everything so that “the store can open in a couple days,” he said. “We can create a ‘just in time’ delivery for any client.”
The Arnoff family is looking forward to expanding Arnoff Global Logistics with the new warehouse and hopes to break ground before it freezes.
“The Town of Malta has approved the plan and we are talking to companies about preordering storage space,” Arnoff said.
“This will be a high bay structure 30 feet tall and since most warehouses in the Capital Region are lower, we can allow a much more cost effective option for our clients,” he said.
Visit www.arnoff.com to learn more.