Don Anderson of DBL Distributing said yesterday’s ceremony marking the transition of the company’s logistics and warehousing to Ingram Micro’s sprawling facility in Jonestown, Pa., was more than a ribbon cutting.
“This is the beginning of a new era for DBL,” he said.
To kick off this new beginning, DBL is launching several initiatives.
Those include the formation of a new marketing team that will focus on serving an increasingly influential Latino market, broadening its gaming accessories offerings and hiring a former CompUSA buyer to drive the market, and adding a small-appliance line, according to Anderson, DBL’s executive vice president of operations and administration, and Tim Coakley, DBL’s senior vice president of merchandising.
The transition to the 850,000-sqaure-foot Jonestown facility, one of DBL parent company Ingram Micro’s five advanced logistical centers in the U.S., will also decrease the average shipment time of products to two to three days, down from four to five.
“A day or two is really important because a distributor’s core competency is to provide just-in-time service, not just-in-case,” Coakley said. “The supply chain just got a lot more efficient for retailers through DBL.”
DBL realized early this year that it was quickly outgrowing its four-year-old 100,000-square-foot facility in Scottsdale, Ariz. That was mainly due to the size of the large-panel televisions (which made up roughly 25 percent of DBL’s business) it was warehousing, as well as its booming accessories business, Coakley and Anderson said.
About 60 percent of DBL customers are also located east of the Mississippi River, which added an extra day or two to the delivery times from Scottsdale.
“Over the course of time, dealers in New Jersey for example will spend a lot less in freight since the product is not being shipping from Arizona,” Coakley said. “That could mean a savings of three to four points.”
DBL’s sales, marketing and executive headquarters will remain in the Scottsdale facility, which will also provide will-call services and logistics for a limited line of products.
While the overall sales of DLP TVs are decreasing, Anderson said the line still accounts for roughly 15 percent of the TVs DBL ships and is popular with Latino consumers. That demographic is one of DBL’s fastest growing, a trend that should continue for the next 10 years, Anderson said. DBL’s new multi-lingual marketing team recently sent a Spanish-language version of its catalog to several key Texas dealers, as part of a pilot program, Coakley said.
DBL is also experience triple-digit growth of gaming accessories and recently hired Rob Terkelson, formerly of CompUSA, as its video gaming buyer, Coakley said. The distributor recently sent 15,000 customers a new 16-page gaming accessories catalog, which Coakley expects will more than double in size in its next version due in October.
“Gaming accessories are something dealers are absolutely screaming for,” he said. “Sales are just phenomenal; not just in hardware, where the margins are almost nonexistent for retailers, but in the software and accessories.”
DBL in October will also launch a new line of small appliances, such as wine coolers and microwave ovens, as well as personal care products, Coakley said.
