Global Link Logistics launches FLEX service in Shanghai

Jeff Berman, Group News Editor -- Logistics Management, 5/8/2008

ATLANTA—Global Link Logistics, a furniture freight forwarder from Asia to the United States and subsidiary of Golden Gate Logistics, a San Francisco-based transportation and logistics merger and acquisitions firm, said this week it has expanded its FLEX (Furniture Less than Container Express) service into the Shanghai region of China.

FLEX enables manufacturers and retailers to consolidate furniture orders from single or multiple factories at origin. GLL said in a statement that FLEX was created so manufacturers and dealers of all sizes could cost-effectively consolidate orders from any number of factories at origin and ship individual orders—as small as 300 cubic feet—directly to any destination in the contiguous U.S. and many Canadian points through a logistics network dedicated to furniture.  It also said that FLEX offers furniture importers the cost advantages of a direct container program combined with the order size flexibility of a North American warehouse program.

GLL said that the following furniture manufacturers are currently taking advantage of its FLEX service in Shanghai: Chromcraft-Revington, Lane Furniture, and Schnadig. It also noted that FLEX is also available in other Asia-based regions, including Ho Chi Minh City and Yantian.

In an interview with LM, GLL Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing Ed Feitzinger said that the decision to expand FLEX into Shanghai was a response to customer needs.

“Global Link's customers with fragile product needed an LCL service for resupplying their retailers that they could depend on to not only make timely deliveries, but deliver the product without damage,” said Feitzinger. “Shanghai is a major origin for furniture, particularly upholstered furniture, so it was a logical extension after Yantian and Ho Chi Minh City.”

GLL started FLEX service in Yantian in early 2007, according to Feitzinger, and he explained that it planned to launch Shanghai service around a few anchor tenants, who just recently launched their mixed container programs and partial container programs—retailer resupply—from Shanghai.

In terms of the biggest benefits of expanding FLEX into Shanghai for manufacturers and shippers, Feitzinger said that “the ability to mix containers from multiple factories in the region or ship LCL means that retailers can take smaller inventory positions and preserve their cash in these tight times, while still offering customers a broad mix of product.”

“As the cost of fuel and transportation continues to increase, furniture importers are looking for ways to gain a competitive advantage,” said John Williford, president of Global Link Logistics, in a statement. “Global Link’s expansion of FLEX provides furniture importers with a transportation option in Shanghai that will give their companies that advantage.”

In December 2007, LM reported that GLL expanded its relationship with TradeBeam, a global trade management and software provider, in an initiative designed to provide furniture shippers with additional functionality to GLL’s online tracking and supply chain visibility services.