Weber Logistics, a leading third party logistics and supply chain management provider for more than 86 years, announced that it recently partnered with Storck to distribute more than one million cases of such popular brands as Riesen, Werthers, Mamba, Merci and Toffifay to its customers and consumers each year throughout the Western United States.

With a global presence in more than 90 countries, Berlin-based Storck markets and sells 60 different confectionery SKUs which are produced at facilities in Germany and shipped to the United States.

The relationship between Weber and Storck includes full-service third party logistics for California, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, and Washington. The entire operation is temperature-controlled at a constant 55-65 degrees, including drayage from the Port of Oakland to Weber's 208,000 square foot Stockton, California facility where the candy is stored, orders are processed, and outbound LTL and truckload shipments are arranged depending on the customer.

'Weber provides both transportation and warehousing, which makes it easier for us; it's all centralized versus doing it in pieces,' said Catherine McClure, Storck's director of operations for supply chain, North America explains. 'They pick up our containers at the Port of Oakland and the containers are taken back to their Stockton facility where the orders are filled and processed via EDI ' the information seamlessly flows from our customers to us to Weber. Weber picks orders for our customers including mixed pallets LTL, FTL and all special requirements for labeling.' In fact, Weber had existing relationships with many of Storck's customers, including Safeway, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Ralph's, Costco and Smart &Final, to name a few.

At the Stockton facility, Weber offers the latest technology to provide Storck with constant and real time visibility to their inventory. 'We are specialists at retail shipping compliance, which has created greater demand for electronic integration, inventory tracking and a concise understanding of order delivery requirements,' said Marc Levin, Weber's senior vice president, client solutions. 'It's our job to help Storck expedite the decision-making process using the latest WMS and TMS solutions, which allows them to allocate inventory within minutes instead of hours or days.'

'We strive to be a top confectionery brand and we need partners that can support us,' said McClure. 'Internally, we are not warehousing and distribution experts. It is simply not our area of expertise. We wanted a best-in-class provider and Weber Logistics has the scale and systems to offer us improvements. We produce unique, high quality brands that have gained consumers' trust and loyalty and we are committed to delivering the freshest product to our consumers.'

'We looked at service, price and capability to position ourselves for growth and we needed to look to a provider who could accommodate our needs and increase in warehousing and value-added distribution,' said McClure. 'Weber is very well-established in warehousing and distribution on the West Coast and they have the scale and systems to offer us improvements. They have a strong IT solution, which compliments our requirements for EDI between us and our customers ' this was a big piece of the decision-making process. We rely on a combination of their services.'

'We are very excited about working with Storck and helping them grow their business in the West,' said Levin. 'Confectionery is our strength so we will continue to stay on the leading edge with the latest in refrigeration and technology supported by the best and most knowledgeable staff.'