American Freight Furniture is a discount furniture and mattress retailer which operates 170 store locations across the U.S. When Transportation Manager Jason Conley joined American Freight, he quickly assessed the company’s unique supply chain and transportation challenges. American Freight’s business is highly seasonal, with an annual sales peak which coincides with tax season, as consumers look to spend their tax refunds on big-ticket purchases such as furniture.
The key challenge for American Freight was that the volume of product they required in order to fully capitalize on their busy season far exceeded the square footage available in their stores. Increasing store size in order to accommodate a seasonal spike was not a viable option. To compound the challenge, American Freight must pre-purchase large quantities of furniture in order to be prepared for peak season with ample inventory. Because the furniture is shipped from the manufacturer directly to the store locations, simply storing the product in advance of the peak season so that it was readily available for replenishment was a key concern.
American Freight turned to GlobalTranz for help during the 2019 tax season, and GlobalTranz’s performance led American Freight to select GlobalTranz as their managed transportation services provider starting in 2020. The GlobalTranz Solutions team developed a plan to leverage GlobalTranz’s extensive relationships with asset-based carriers to utilize their capacity as well as their yards to create a just in time replenishment program to support American Freight’s store locations during peak season. The result, according to Mr. Conley, was “a game-changer.”
In this feature in Forbes.com, Steve Banker profiles Mr. Conley and American Freight and shared additional details regarding their challenges and GlobalTranz’s solution. Read the full article to learn why this is truly a “managed transportation success story.”