Norwegian children’s quality furniture and equipment manufacturer Stokke has contracted with GEODIS in China to establish a pan-Asian warehousing and distribution platform to facilitate its rapid consumer market growth via retail stores and e-commerce.
GEODIS has been contracted to support the Norwegian manufacturer in what has been a rapid and successful market growth for Stokke. GEODIS has established two warehouses in the Shanghai region and will implement a specially designed IT solution to organize packaging, labelling, quality inspection, inventory control and palletisation of the imported products. GEODIS will also organize the distribution of orders to retail outlets in over twenty cities throughout China.
The growth potential of the Chinese middle-income market is underlined by the increase in quality products being imported from Europe. The Norwegian head-quartered Stokke AS, established over eighty years ago, has been producing premium children’s equipment, including highchairs, strollers and nursery furniture, for nearly fifty years and exporting to China for the past ten.
Lars Myrup, Managing Director Stokke APAC, comments: “We are experiencing a surge in orders for our ergonomic and nature-respecting products from the increasingly discerning Chinese consumer and required a supply chain service provider with a flexible approach to serving a dynamic market. After an extensive tender process, the solutions provided by GEODIS combined with a respect for the environment in line with our own, convinced us of their suitability.”
“GEODIS is delighted to be extending the relationship with Stokke that began some five years ago,” comments Onno Boots, Regional President Asia Pacific. “We pride ourselves on meeting the logistic challenges faced by our customers. In the case of Stokke we have been able to design an IT platform that seamlessly coordinates the inventory control and value-added services we provide at our Shanghai warehouses with efficient road delivery to outlets across China. This solution will also be able to facilitate e-commerce orders in the future.”
The partners potentially plan to extend their cooperation in due course to allow the distribution of Stokke products into developing markets in other parts of the Pacific Rim, including Korea, Japan, Singapore and Australia.
