To cut down on spiraling package delivery costs, high-tech gifts and gadgets cataloger/retailer Sharper Image Corp. has expanded its distribution center in Ontario, CA, and opened one in Richmond, VA, to go along with its main distribution center in Little Rock, AR.
“Our business has grown so robustly that we’ve gotten to a dollar volume where it makes a lot of sense to have multiple distribution centers,” says Jeff Forgan, executive vice president/chief financial officer for the San Francisco-based marketer. What’s more, the company was losing money on parcels being sent to areas of the country far from its Little Rock facility.
In October, Sharper Image expanded its Ontario distribution center to 132,000 sq. ft. from 58,000 sq. ft. It began using its Richmond facility in November. “We just completed phase one to bring on that operation” which included shipping the top 100 SKUs to stores as well as to catalog customers and the Internet business for the holiday season, Forgan says. The company plans to bring the full assortment of its SKUs to the Richmond facility by next fall.
Now, Forgan says, “we can reach everywhere in the country in two days using UPS ground.”