Hermès: Warehousing & Distribution Evolution

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Could you give me a brief overview of the warehousing landscape and distribution of Hermès, and the general thinking behind the global setup?

However, coordination was very difficult. The last-mile courier would turn up whenever they liked, and retail stores couldn't handle it. So, they decided to open a distribution center in the UK to receive products, store them, and distribute them efficiently to the stores. After our opening, we were a test case, and a few others followed in the Middle East and Asia. However, they decided to take a different approach. The warehouse I managed was owned by Hermès and operated in-house. After that, the company decided to try third-party logistics, contracting a French logistics provider to operate warehouses in Asia.

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What were the reasons they outsourced parts of the distribution to third parties?

In America, for example, it's still run by and owned by Hermès. Every market, I think, has the capability within Hermès to decide what they think is best. In the UK, I don't work for Hermès anymore because the contract was eventually given to a third-party logistics provider. The business was too big, and they decided to bring all the ecommerce from France. The ecommerce was managed directly from Paris, but due to some political choices within the UK, like the removal of tax-free shopping, we lost quite a bit of turnover. They asked France if they could bring the ecommerce into the UK and manage it directly, and France agreed.

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