Vectura - The Leading Beverage Logistics Provider

Vectura AS is Norway's leading logistics company for alcoholic beverages. Its customers include producers/suppliers, agents, and importers of wine, spirits, and other drinks.

The company provides a complete value chain that manages the flow of goods from 50 countries and distributes over 50-60 million units annually to Vinmonopolet stores, the Horeca sector, and wholesalers with its 15 vehicles.

Vectura distribute goods for more than 800 different producers with a range of 14,500 products within beer, wine, and spirits.

As Norway's largest logistics player in the wine and spirits market, Vectura is responsible for delivering 52% of the market share to the Vinmonopolet.

Inti Johan Castro - Director Planning and Distribution

Special editions of various aquavit bottles from Løiten, Linie, and Gammel Opland from Norway are displayed behind glass panels. Behind the bottles, one can glimpse a rustic bar, where the products are conveyed into elegant drinks upon request.

"Thanks for last time," echoes a familiar voice.

Inti Johan Castro greets us with a broad smile in the well-lit foyer of Vectura's headquarters at Gjelleråsen. He guides us past the coffee machine before we take the elevator up to his office.

Castro is an accomplished supply chain executive with a robust background in management consultancy and extensive expertise in optimising supply chains, financial forecasting, and strategic planning. Castro has led numerous projects within these areas.

Photo: Vectura AS

How Vectura Uses Zendera

"I would actually say that our entire company uses Zendera now," begins Castro before we have managed to sit down.

Vectura AS has been using Zendera for over two years when we meet the company's planning director for a review of how they have experienced the transition. Castro is responsible for everything from forecasts to planning, and simultaneously supports the warehouse, distribution, and goods reception with planning tools, facilitating their ability to do their jobs as best as possible.

Castro places the paper cup to his lips and takes a sip of coffee before confidently explaining how Zendera is used throughout the company.

"It's everything from the planning department that lays out routes, the distribution department that follows up on the distribution every day, and the drivers who deliver to the customers every day – who are completely dependent on using the Zendera app to carry out the delivery and send information back to us," Castro says, adding:

"In addition, our customer service center has also started to actively use it on the front line."

With the introduction of Zendera, customer service got the ability to track all deliveries in real-time, and as a result, quickly inform customers about the status of their delivery. Castro says this move opened Vectura's eyes, and they now plan to further utilize the function.

"Eventually, the ambition is for the customer to be able to use this information directly. We have built a web portal where customers get the information that we see in Zendera today – regarding deliveries and delays. The customers themselves will have the opportunity to see the status of their delivery, all the way from picking to delivery, and they will also see any deviations."

Photo: Vectura AS

Strict Delivery Time Windows

Castro explains that meeting customers' expectations is not an easy task. His eyes come to life as he talks about the strict requirements in the transportation industry.

He points out that customers should always receive the right amount of goods at the right time, and exemplifies this by talking about the customer with the most demanding delivery requirements:

"The various Vinmonopol around the country operate with a delivery window that averages an hour. That means that we, more or less throughout the entire country, are to deliver within that one-hour window. So, these are the strict requirements we work after every day."

Photo: Rortune

Every single day, Vectura has to deliver goods all over the country – within delivery windows that are often under an hour.

Every day, Castro and Vectura deliver to sky-high expectations, and this is where Zendera comes in. The system takes care of all the repetitive and standardized tasks, allowing managers and workers to focus on the important tasks.

Challenging Delivery Conditions

A particular challenge involves deploying special vehicles due to specific height or weight requirements. This is a critical measure to prevent material damage or the risk of transporting goods with an illegal weight load.

It ensures that we have an overview of challenging delivery conditions and can consider and accommodate for this.

Also, we deal with other demanding deliveries, which we categorise in Zendera as "heavy lifting." Only staff with the right skills get these jobs. This is especially important for health, safety and environment (HSE) measures and follow-up criteria after sick leave.

Rising Fuel Prises

Additionally, the product is designed to maximize efficiency and reduce costs. Castro believes this has become especially profitable after the coronavirus pandemic:

"It becomes extremely important with efficient planning tools when the market and transportation costs are only increasing. You see that diesel prices at times were 70 percent higher than pre-COVID. Wages are rising, and there's general price inflation, but it's not necessarily price increases we can pass on and cover through our customers, so we must always be efficient," Castro explains.

After finishing the coffee and the planned questions, Castro leads us towards the driving office. Along the way, we pass through the enormous warehouse.

Over 1,000 different items are strategically and precisely stacked both dozens of meters in height and across the floor. It's a huge logistical puzzle, where a single misplacement can have significant consequences.

We are explained how people and automated conveyors work in harmony to ensure all goods are correctly loaded and prepared for delivery.

Less Overtime - Less External Transportation

One of the points where Castro noted they had seen the biggest difference was that drivers worked much less overtime than before.

"Through improved route planning, we have achieved a reduction in overtime among our drivers and a decrease in the use of external transportation." Castro says.

Would you like to know more about how Zendera can assist you and your business?

Contact us for a chat.