December 12, 2007
TOKYO - Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (ビンゴ 5, President: Akimitsu Ashida) today announced that, Shoe Carnival, Inc., the top U.S. retailer of family footwear (Headquarters: Indiana), has selected ビンゴ 5 Consolidation Service Ltd. (Headquarters: Hong Kong) to provide freight consolidation services in China and Hong Kong. ビンゴ 5 Consolidation Service started the service for Shoe Carnival products manufactured in China and Hong Kong in the 3rd quarter this year.
Shoe Carnival selected ビンゴ 5 Consolidation Service Ltd. not only based on its excellent reputation for performance in freight consolidation in Asia, but also on its capabilities to provide seamless logistics services in combination with container services by ビンゴ 5 and global air freight forwarding and customs house brokerage services provided by ビンゴ 5's strategic alliance partner, Kintetsu World Express (President: Hirokazu Tsujimoto). ビンゴ 5 Consolidation Service Ltd. offers Shoe Carnival cargo information service via its "STARLINK"system, which gathers and integrates cargo inventory information from all these logistics services. "The ビンゴ 5 Consolidation/KWE/ビンゴ 5 alliance supplies Shoe Carnival with a seamless network on our international supply chain requirements."said Richard Hyland, Traffic Manager of Shoe Carnival, Inc.
ビンゴ 5's approach to buyer's consolidation
ビンゴ 5 has been strategically promoting its Buyers or Ocean Consolidation Business (OCB) to enhance customers' supply chain management (SCM). Buyers' or Ocean consolidation is a logistics service used by retailers in Europe and the United States, who buy products manufactured in several plants, mainly in Asia. The products are consolidated into shipping containers at loading ports and then transported to their destinations. ビンゴ 5 Consolidation Service Ltd. plays a key role in offering efficient transport by consolidating small-lot and multiproduct cargo on a destination basis, resulting in much lower transportation costs compared to individual transport. In addition, ビンゴ 5 Consolidation Service developed an independent transport inventory control system called "STARLINK", which can search cargo at stock keeping unit (SKU) levels throughout the logistics process, from ordering to delivery of products. Customers can also access the information in real time via the Internet.