Every month, OVRSEA meets its shipper customers to discuss freight and logistics news but also future challenges. This week, we meet Hervé Sergeraert, Supply Chain Director of Petzl, a French group that is one of the world leaders in mountaineering, climbing and speleology equipment. How is Petzl adapting and changing as it aims to reduce its carbon footprint by 50% by 2030? Encounter.
Hello Hervé. Can you introduce yourself and Petzl?
After more than 20 years with Bosch, I joined the Petzl Group in 2015, where I worked as Program Director and then as Supply Chain Director since 2020. Petzl is a family business based in Crolles, near Grenoble, specializing in solutions provided to users to progress safely in vertical or dark worlds. Our products are distributed both for leisure (climbing, mountaineering, canyoning...) and for professionals.
What are the special features of Petzl in terms of logistics?
We have upstream flows that concern Asia, with a central point in Malaysia where we have a factory and a logistics platform, which allows us to then distribute to two downstream platforms: one in Crolles, in Isère, and in the United States. We also have three factories in France, with a flow from our French platform to Salt Lake City. Finally, we have a last logistics platform in Sweden for the Scandinavian market.
What has changed for you since 2020?
In 2019, our transport universe was perfectly adjusted. We had a contract with a freight forwarder and it was humming. In two years, everything was turned upside down. In addition to prices, TTs have increased considerably: from 63 days to 100 days on average in Malaysia-United States or from 34 to 65 days between France and the United States. All of this has had a significant impact on our inventory. TTs increased by 30 days, that's one month of floating stock coverage that's not available for customers. In addition, there were shortages of components and materials. Finally, all this has involved questions in terms of transport, in particular a switch made sometimes inevitable to air travel, whose share has been multiplied by 3 or 4 for us since the start of the crisis.
What did you do to cushion the shock?
In March 2020, I took the fairly radical decision to make all purchase orders placed with our suppliers firm, in order to provide them with long-term commitment and visibility. At a time when everyone was braking, Petzl was committed! We have taken this approach from the start and it has helped us. However, in spring 2021, it proved insufficient in the face of new supply chain turmoil...
How are you approaching the end of the year on the transport side?
I am noticing a certain stabilization in prices, TTs and container availability times. To achieve this, we had to move away from a single freight forwarder model and choose a model with three freight forwarders or service companies. Our concerns therefore now revolve more around our suppliers, who are hit by factory closures and shortages of raw materials.
Another particularity is that with my teams, we collaborate in Petzl's CSR approach, which is committed to reducing the carbon intensity of its activity by 50% by 2030. Knowing how to speed up flows to avoid disruptions while limiting air transport is enough to create complexity! It's all about trade-offs.
For Petzl, will this environmental commitment translate into profound logistical changes?
Yes, we will build a network of distribution platforms as close as possible to our customers. This should happen as early as 2023 with the opening of a 3PL platform in China, which will allow us to reduce all our greenhouse gases emitted on Chinese territory by 90%. But for the time being, the health crisis is making it difficult to travel in China... which is not making it easy!
How do you see 2022?
I see a complicated first half of 2022. The biggest challenge of component and material shortages is ahead of us. On maritime transport, a lot of signals make me think that we may have passed the peak, but I will remain very vigilant until CNY. But I think that we will never return to the 2019 tariff situation.
A word about The Shipper and the importance of being informed in such a context?
For me it is one of best newsletters on the subject, it manages to remain concise while giving information that is in line with my concerns. It also addresses alternatives, such as railways, subjects in which I must be interested in order to open our future Chinese platform.
