By Karen E. Thuermer, AJOTWe have all popped a Werther’s Original, Toffiee, Knoppers, Riesen, or Mamba candy into our mouths at one time or another. While savoring these confectionary delights, few of us would think to give thought to the logistics behind how Storck USA imports its ingredients to the United States via the Port of Elizabeth, NJ and what happens to it while its in the hands of East Coast Warehouse & Distribution Corp. Today, Storck USA, a subsidiary of Storck GMBH & Co. KG headquartered in Berlin, Germany, sells its products in over 90 countries, a business that accounts for $1 billion in annual sales worldwide. The US portion rings in $90 million annually—a hefty chunk of change, or, shall we say, mouthful of candies! Visualize this if you can: The ingredients for the US-manufactured candies arrive on North American shores in approximately 1,250 40-foot containers annually. “This accounts for roughly 325 containers per year to Port Elizabeth and East Coast Warehouse & Distribution alone,” reveals Michael Clifton, Storck USA logistics manager from the company’s Chicago headquarters. Storck had utilized a warehouse and distribution company in the Northern New Jersey area for some 15 years, then shifted to a firm in Pennsylvania. This year it chose to do business with East Coast Warehouse & Distribution Corp. The reason: East Coast’s proximity to Port Elizabeth. Even with traffic around the port increasing at an estimated 20% per year due to mounting cargo volumes coming from Asia, Clifton sees the location as a win-win situation. “East Coast Warehouse is actually on Port Authority property, which means we do not run into any problems or delays transporting the product from the port to the warehouse,” comments Clifton. Marc Lebovitz, executive vice president of East Coast Warehouse & Distribution, explains that his company offers single source warehouse and distribution solutions for a host of products requiring temperature-controlled environments, bonded warehousing, consolidation, and more. Among the products it handles are food, confectionaries, beverages, and pharmaceuticals. “Most items are imported,” he says. “Once the container arrives and is unloaded off the vessel, we offer one-stop service from picking the products up from the dock to distributing them nationally.” The company operates from three buildings totaling 1.5 million square feet. On port advantages Streamlining the operation, East Coast Warehousing operates its own in-house drayage company. “With the number of containers we bring in on a weekly basis, we are pleased with how East Coast Warehouse can turn around and collect our containers at the warehouse within one week’s time,” Clifton says. By comparison, Storck’s Pennsylvania warehouse/distribution provider was located two to three hours from the port. “That did not work well,” Clifton comments. He describes how trucks could be stopped for hours at the Pennsylvania border for security checks. “By going to East Coast Warehousing, our turnaround time for reefers has been reduced by two days, which encompasses about 60% of our 325 containers.” This is especially critical since there is a reefer equipment shortage. Steamship lines and seaport terminals want equipment returned quickly. “If you do not return it quickly, demurrage and per diem fees set in quickly,” he says. The Pennsylvania company also had problems handling Storck’s containers, which are slip-sheeted in Germany. “East Coast Warehousing has risen above the bar in unloading our containers in a timely manner. We have seen them unload and rack a container within one to two hours,” Clifton remarks. “Some public warehouses are not comfortable unloading our product, putting it onto pallets and storing the pallets in a timely manner. Some simply leave the pallets in a staging area to rack later.” Immediate racking is important to Storck since some confectionary can be lost or suffer damage. “Our products have a high velocity,” he says.