News

Efficiency can give firms competitive edge

  Reports of UPS establishing a strategic collaboration with a leading international electronic product solutions company relating to reverse logistics operations highlighted a wider growing focus on that increasingly significant and multi-faceted business sector.

The scope of the global reverse logistics market now extends from the very basic such as the return of secondary packaging after goods have been delivered to customers through to complex manufacturer product return/repair programs and supply chains handling surplus or unwanted inventory being sold or resold to recoup some of its value.

Bill Angrick, chairman and chief executive officer of Liquidity Services, a US-based global online marketplace for surplus goods and provider of “all required services”, including storage and logistics, “to enable retailers and manufacturers to recover value for those products”, went further. He suggested to Cargonews Asia that efficient reverse supply chains could actually provide companies with a competitive advantage.

“More effective management of the reverse supply chain with the right partners can create clear opportunities to transform the supply chain, improve brand image and support environmental and sustainability programmes,” said Angrick, whose company’s worldwide presence includes Asia Pacific region offices in Hong Kong, mainland China, Singapore and Australia.