Managing relationships while changing supply chain partners

Terminating or not renewing an existing distribution contract and setting up your own sales office in an Asian country is never easy. Especially when the said tableware distribution contract generated over US$ 20 million in revenue and accounted for a fifth of the company’s global revenue. Yet this is precisely what had to be done by our client in order to expand and maximize growth opportunities in its largest market in Asia.

More importantly, while the distribution license termination was in process, AMA had to help the client search, identify, shortlist, evaluate and appoint a logistics and supply chain partner in Korea to ensure that there was minimum or zero supply disruption of the client’s products from the UK to Korea. And all to be completed in less than 12 weeks.

AMA helped identify, shortlist and evaluate seven different logistics providers, both big and small, in order to ensure that the client ended up with the right partner since it was a three-year contract which had serious implications for the client’s continued success in Asia.

Additionally, we advised our client on the implications of not renewing a distribution relationship in a country where relationships are critical to your brand’s reputation and growth, especially when the said distributor was well-connected with the leading department stores through whom the client’s brand was retailing.

AMA helped identify, shortlist and evaluate seven different logistics providers, both big and small, in order to ensure that the client ended up with the right partner since it was a three-year contract which had serious implications for the client’s continued success in Asia. And post-signing of the new supply chain contract, another month was spent ensuring the supply and distribution relationship was activated smoothly and hit the ground running, leaving the client sufficient bandwidth to focus on the marketing of its launch of operations in Korea.