The Challenge
A furniture retailer operating five showrooms across metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria needed to establish a consistent monthly supply chain from their manufacturing partner in Foshan, China. The product range included flat-pack and assembled furniture pieces — sofas, dining tables, bedroom suites, and shelving units — that arrived in mixed-SKU containers and needed to be sorted, stored, quality-checked, and distributed to individual showrooms based on weekly sales data and floor stock requirements.
The primary challenge was operational rather than logistical. The client's previous approach involved receiving containers directly at their head-office warehouse (a converted domestic garage), manually sorting hundreds of cartons across a cramped space, then hiring ad-hoc delivery trucks each week to replenish individual stores. This process was labour-intensive, inconsistent, and created regular stockouts at high-performing stores while low-performers accumulated excess inventory.
They needed a logistics partner who could take ownership of the entire post-arrival chain: receive containers, devann and sort by SKU, maintain a running inventory, accept replenishment orders from store managers, pick and stage deliveries, and execute scheduled weekly distribution runs to all five locations. The solution needed to be cost-effective enough to work within the tight margins of a furniture retail business, where freight and handling often represent 12-18% of landed product cost.
Additionally, the furniture required careful handling. Many pieces arrived in protective packaging that was insufficient for the ocean voyage, resulting in damage rates of approximately 8% under their previous arrangements. Reducing damage during devanning and storage was a specific requirement from the client.
Our Approach
We designed a complete supply-chain-as-a-service solution that addressed every stage from factory gate in Foshan to showroom floor in Victoria. The programme operates on a predictable monthly cycle with clearly defined responsibilities and handoff points.
At origin, we worked directly with the Foshan factory to improve container loading practices. After reviewing photographs of previous shipments that had arrived with damage, we identified that most issues occurred because cartons were stacked too high without intermediate dunnage layers, and assembled furniture pieces lacked sufficient corner protection. We provided the factory with a loading specification document (in Mandarin) detailing maximum stack heights per product type, dunnage placement, and blanket-wrap requirements for assembled items. This alone reduced damage from 8% down to under 1.5%.
On the shipping side, we locked in a monthly carrier allocation of two 40ft High Cube containers on a Foshan – Melbourne direct service (via Nansha port). By committing to a regular monthly volume, we negotiated a contract rate approximately 22% below spot-market pricing, providing the client with cost certainty for budgeting and pricing decisions.
In Melbourne, our Mount Waverley warehouse operates as the client's distribution hub. When each container arrives, our team devans it within 24 hours using soft-handling procedures — no dropping, no rough stacking, and immediate separation of any cartons showing external damage for inspection. Each item is scanned into our inventory system by SKU, and the client receives a real-time stock report showing what's available, what's been allocated to stores, and what's on the water.
Distribution runs to the five showrooms are scheduled every Tuesday and Thursday. Store managers submit replenishment requests by Monday and Wednesday evenings, our warehouse picks and stages the orders overnight, and our delivery partner executes the runs the following morning using a tail-lift truck suitable for bulky furniture deliveries. Each delivery includes a signed manifest, and damaged items identified during devanning are photographed and reported to the client for insurance claims against the origin packer.
The Solution
The monthly programme delivers the following integrated services:
- Factory loading supervision via Mandarin-language specifications sent to origin
- 2 x 40ft HC FCL bookings per month on a contracted carrier rate (22% below spot)
- Export customs clearance at Nansha managed by our Guangzhou agent
- Import customs clearance via pre-lodged ICS entries with DAFF timber/fumigation compliance
- Container devanning within 24 hours of delivery to Mount Waverley warehouse
- SKU-level inventory management with real-time stock reporting
- Twice-weekly distribution runs to 5 showroom locations across Victoria
- Damage inspection, photography, and claims-support reporting
- Monthly reconciliation and performance reporting
The entire programme runs on auto-pilot. The client's store managers interact directly with our warehouse for replenishment, and our team handles the rest — shipping, customs, storage, and delivery — without requiring the business owner to manage logistics day-to-day.
Results
After 12 months of operation, the programme has delivered consistent, measurable improvements across the client's entire supply chain. Shipping costs are down 22% through contracted rates. Product damage has dropped from 8% to 1.5% — saving approximately $14,000 per year in lost stock. Stockout incidents at showrooms have reduced by over 70% thanks to the regular distribution schedule and real-time inventory visibility.
The client has also recovered approximately 15 hours per week of their own time previously spent coordinating deliveries, managing truck bookings, and physically sorting containers. That time has been redirected to marketing, store development, and product range expansion — resulting in a 30% year-on-year revenue increase that the owner directly attributes in part to the operational efficiency gains.
The programme continues to run smoothly on its monthly cycle, and we are currently planning an extension to include a sixth showroom location in Geelong that the client is opening later this year. The additional volume will allow us to negotiate even more competitive carrier rates as the account approaches a three-container-per-month commitment.