Case Study

Solving a Serious Supply Chain Problem

PPS and Merrick Retail Services Team Up For a Solution

Problem

A world-wide interruption in the supply chain is one more challenge society faces as it emerges from a global pandemic. This interruption created a nearly impossible situation for a popular North American office supply vendor, but fortunately MPW-owned Production Paint Stripping Ltd., or PPS, partnered with a national supplier of retail products to find a solution.

The office supply vendor committed to updating the look of its stores and ordered new standard metal fixtures, equipment and shelving from a Texas company. However, the supply chain interruption forced the Texas company to delay its delivery times from four weeks to five months.

The office supply vendor’s new storefronts cannot operate without shelving and faced sitting vacant until shelves arrived. In the meantime, the vendor would lose significant revenue. The office supply vendor’s leadership makes commitments to refresh its stores years in advance, and never anticipated the supply chain issues.

Solution

Merrick Retail Services, Inc. is a supplier of specialty fixtures, cash-out displays and related items. The office supply vendor, in trouble, asked Merrick to supply the shelving. Merrick proposed maintaining the vendor’s timeline by refurbishing old, existing shelving Merrick Retail Services would repair and repaint to suit the vendor’s needs, but Merrick needed help with the initial paint stripping.

Merrick Retail Services’ President Mike Pusateri called on PPS General Manager Chris Hughes to strip the shelving metal. Merrick arranged the logistics from stores all over Canada to ship the metal shelves to PPS’ Brampton, Ontario facility for stripping.

Merrick shipped the stripped metal shelves to a central warehouse to be organized, repaired, inventoried, and shipped to a painter. Merrick’s refurbished shelving was then transported to the office supply vendor’s stores or warehouses on schedule. Creating shelving from reclaimed metal cost the vendor 20% to 25% extra, but this expense paled in comparison with the amount of money the vendor would have lost had its stores sat empty.

Results

The office supply vendor was very pleased with the outcome and a partnership formed between Merrick Retail Services and PPS Ltd.; Merrick Retail Services couldn’t strip the old metal without PPS’ capabilities, and PPS couldn’t handle the logistics without Merrick, which also had the contacts.

Merrick and PPS look to extend this partnership to help other major retailers maintain and replace shelving and other metal-based goods while the world’s supply chain interruption continues.

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