Weber Distribution - Strategies, Solutions and Best Practices for Business Leaders

For 85 years, Weber Distribution has been there for the food and beverage industry, providing distribution and logistics services. COO John Nutt says that the company’s longevity and reputation for quality service have made it one of the most successful logistics companies serving the food and beverage industry. “We have a prominent position on the West Coast, even in the midst of the global competition we face,” he says.

Founded in 1924 in downtown Los Angeles, Weber remains a family owned and operated business to this day, now in its third generation of family leadership. The company has facilities located in and around Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Las Vegas, Seattle, Phoenix and Portland, Ore. In addition to serving the food and beverage industry, Weber serves customers in the import and retail, chemical and paper industries. Some of its well-known clients include General Mills, Hershey, California Innovations, Chevron Phillips, PPG Industries, and Weyerhaeuser.

In every market, Weber brings the same advantages to all customers, including value-added services, lean distribution and locally focused leadership. Nutt says the company is working to meet the challenges of the current economy while maintaining the same level of service and becoming a greener organization. Above all, he says, Weber values its ability to develop creative solutions for its customers.

Thinking Differently
The company can be creative because of how close it is to customers’ distribution origins, according to Nutt. “One of the things that sets us apart is that, being nationally local and having our corporate headquarters here, it provides a leadership with relative proximity to our customers’ business,” he says.

Because of this proximity, Weber can respond to customers’ needs right away, by dispatching one of its corporate operations members to any of its facilities to get a firsthand look at the problem and develop solutions directly with the warehouse manager and customer. “That’s something we can do in a rapid fashion,” Nutt says. “We’re big enough to be able to afford top-tier solutions and to also get the best pricing from vendors for our clients, but we’re also small enough that we’re still nimble.”

One such solution Weber has developed in response to customers’ needs is its temperature-controlled pool distribution network. Through this system, customers who have temperature-controlled shipments that don’t equal a full load are pooled with similar shipments from other customers so they don’t have to pay the full rate. Nutt says this provides customers with better less-than-truckload rates and has been a successful initiative thus far.

Leaner and Greener
Another successful initiative Weber launched in recent years was the introduction of lean principles into its warehouses. This has been facilitated through technology, and Nutt says it has made the company much more efficient. “About eight years ago, we invested in a top-tier, third-party, logistics-focused warehouse management system, and as you would expect, it’s strictly RF-based, it’s RFID-enabled and it has full labor tracking capabilities,” he says.

The system has done wonders to manage costs out of the process by increasing the efficiency of the company’s warehouse staff.

“It cuts down on needless paperwork and provides often times complex vendor compliance instructions to the warehouse floor by taking away decisions from the operators, so it keeps them out of trouble from having to interpret complicated retail compliance guidelines,” Nutt says. He adds that the system provides Weber with real-time reports on worker productivity. This gives the company a basis for managing its work force.

The warehouse management system fits neatly into Weber’s ongoing efforts to become a greener company by creating a paperless environment in the company’s warehouses. In addition, Weber installed speed governors on all its trucks to keep them at 55 miles per hour for maximum fuel efficiency.