Time-definite, growth booster SCM

For the last 14 years, Safexpress has been providing supply chain and logistics services to numerous large corporate houses in the country. The company has achieved an annual turnover of Rs 700 crore last year and is growing at a rate of 15 per cent. The company provides value-added supply chain and logistics services and have pioneered the concept of time-definite deliveries in India. Safexpress pioneered the concept of day-definite deliveries and going further, the concept of time-definite deliveries in India. Safexpress offers a single-window solution for all supply chain and logistics requirements, such as Express Distribution, Warehousing, Inventory Management, Invoicing, Packaging, Labelling and caters to a vast array of diverse business verticals ranging from Apparel & Lifestyle, Healthcare, Hi-Tech, Automotive, Engineering  & Electrical Hardware to Institutional, FMCG & Consumer Electronics, and Publishing. Safexpress has a very strong network of over 560 offices, 48 hubs and mega-hubs and 15 state-of-the-art Logistics Parks around the country. The company’s fleet of over 3,600 vehicles is moving throughout the country at any point of time.

IT-enabled services to ensure utmost customer satisfaction

Safexpress has also been the first Supply Chain and Logistics organisation to adopt advanced customer-friendly IT initiatives to streamline the company operations and maintain transparency and accurate information flow to the customers.

Some of the key IT elements deployed by Safexpress are ERP, GPS, Track-and-Trace, Warehouse Management System (WMS), Transportation Management System (TMS), Automatic Conveyor Belt System, etc. Information Technology is not only a vital support system for Safexpress, but also a strategic weapon. By innovatively using technology, Safexpress has always provided customised solutions to its customers across various industry verticals.

Stock2Shelf: a unique service for retailers at malls 

Mr Vineet Kanaujia informs, “Retail and lifestyle is the largest vertical for Safexpress and contributes to 1/5th of the total business of the company. Retail industry in India is slowly organising itself. Supply chain and logistics is one grey area which companies operating in India have slowly begun to take notice of. Through our research, we noticed that the retail stores inside malls were unable to make best use of the available resources owing to the lack of a professional supply chain service. Therefore, Safexpress introduced a unique and innovative service, Stock2Shelf, in the year 2009 to enable the store managers to operate efficiently. The service allows owners of retail stores inside malls to serve their customers with a wider variety of goods.” Stock2Shelf operates with a new logo and dedicated trucks in green colour that serve the retail stores inside malls. The delivery crew for this service has been handpicked and provided with training to handle the specific requirements. The Stock2Shelf trucks ply 24x7, 365 days a year. Being the “Knowledge Leader” of the industry, Safexpress has also entered the arena of Supply Chain Consulting in the areas of Distribution, Logistics Management, Warehousing, 3PL and Supply Chain Modelling. 

Marketing strategy

Speaking about the well-thought-out marketing strategy, Mr Kanaujia informs, “The keystone of our marketing strategy is laid on various pillars. These include ATL (Above the Line), BTL (Below the Line), Direct Marketing, Corporate Communications, Corporate Branding, Sports Marketing, Social Media Marketing and Cause Marketing. Under ATL marketing, we promote our brand and communicate our services through Newspapers, Magazines, Television, Radio, Internet and also Outdoor. Safexpress is the only Supply Chain Company that has innovatively used Radio as a medium to enhance its brand equity.  Safexpress has a highly targeted BTL strategy. We participate in close to 50 events in a year and all these events are organised by prestigious bodies like CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM, ITPO, etc. Under Direct Marketing, we send out our award winning in-house magazine, Fasttrack, to all our corporate clients. Since the market has evolved with time, so have we evolved our marketing strategies innovatively to connect with our target group. Social Media Marketing, Sports Marketing and Cause Marketing have been the recent additions to our marketing pillars. Safexpress also sponsors niche corporate sports events which see a lot of participation from corporate fraternity.”

Overcoming the challenges

The journey was not hassle-free throughout.  Reflecting on the challenges, Mr Kanaujia comments, “Changing the mindset of enterprises towards organised logistics service providers vis-à-vis local transporters was a challenge faced by us in our early days. For customers, the consignment reaching to the delivery destination itself was a huge thing at that time. However, Safexpress endeavoured to change the mindset of enterprises and introduced the concept of day-definite delivery initially, followed by time-definite delivery. Moreover, the lack of infrastructure was and still is a major roadblock in the path of effective logistics management. This challenge was countered by mapping the Indian geography, thereby optimising route-planning and in turn bringing down the transit-time of our consignments.”

Future plans

Safexpress has been at the forefront of 3PL Revolution in India. At the moment, the company is driving a warehousing revolution in the country with plans to open 32 Logistics Parks across India; 15 of them are already operational and 17 more would be coming up in a couple of years from now. Augmenting its existing infrastructure and network is Safexpress’ topmost priority right now.

“We already have the largest supply chain and logistics network in the country, but we want to consolidate our position further. Adding more vehicles to our existing, massive fleet size of 3600 GPS-enabled vehicles is also a major focus area for us, as a part of our expansion plans. We also have plans to augment training facilities for our employees, since supply chain industry is a very people-intensive industry which requires a lot of professional skills. There is a dearth of institutions offering professional supply chain courses, so we have developed our own training academy. We will be developing the same further to include a wider gamut of training activities. We are also planning to enhance our IT infrastructure to the highest possible levels. We want IT to become not only a vital support system for Safexpress, but also a strategic weapon for streamlining company operations and maintaining accurate information flow to customers.” Mr Kanaujia reveals.

The growth booster

If you are looking forward to growth, an effective supply chain is a must-have. Mr Kanaujia explains “Supply chain is more than 110 billion USD industry in India. It is almost 10 per cent of India’s GDP. A streamlined supply chain can do wonders for any company, be it a service user or service provider. Across all industries, companies are realising the strategic importance of value-added supply chain and logistics services. Being the pioneer of time-definite deliveries along with providing value-added services and having the largest supply chain network at its disposal, Safexpress has ensured that the size of a business does not determine its reach. So be it a small business or a large corporate, the services of Safexpress can help scale up any business.”