Interview with Rubal Jain

Safexpress works 24X7, 365 days a year to provide 'wrinkle-free' logistics & supply chain solutions to our customers in the apparel/ textiles industry vertical, including the topmost retail brands in India as well as international brands who are increasingly establishing their presence in India. We understand their specific distribution, 3PL and warehousing requirements in terms of managing their high- SKUs (stock keeping units) stocks as per the seasonality and rapidly changing fashion trends w.r.t. both their forward as well as backward supply chains. It is during the start of a fashion season, usually spring-summer and autumn-winter that peak loads are required to be quickly moved about to the required locations as per the demand forecasted. Besides that, continuous replenishment of stocks are required through the rest of the year. Also due to fast changing fashion trends, managing returns and seconds sales is an important aspect of the operations. We also pride ourselves in delivering on Sundays and holidays at no extra charge to ensure goods reach the retail stores even on the busiest days of shopping, to enable their sales on the same day. Safexpress provides a one-stop solution to deliver directly to retailers everywhere in India, with nationwide coverage and reach. Value-added services such as 'Safe Returns' are also available for moving goods that are unsold or goods that are faulty and need to be returned to the manufacturer. Safexpress also offers specialised customer-centric facilities like 'Draft/Cheque on delivery' to aid retail business and enhance seller retailer relationship.

We aim to provide wrinkle-free logistics for our customers in apparels/ textiles industry vertical. Especially in an industry which is characterised by fast fashion trends, this service becomes all the more critical. The service includes proper packaging, services like Stock2Shelf, 'store-ready deliveries' and also most importantly 'time-bound deliveries'. Managing returns for unsold or damaged products is another key feature offered. We have always endeavoured to provide tailor-made logistics solutions to meet our customers' specific needs. Since fashion trends keep changing rapidly, we understand the need for the materials to reach the stores quickly to ensure maximum sales. Due to high rentals, most of these stores strive to eliminate large stocks at the store front, which requires faster replenishment by the logistics service provider. This further means a shift from full-truck loads and traditional transportation systems to express distribution and engaging organised logistics players such as Safexpress, which can deliver even a single box right at the retailer's doorstep situated in the remotest corner of India, fastest by using multi-modal network through surface and air.

It is still unclear how many pincodes are present in India, but the estimates range between 20,000 and 50,000. In either case, the retailers have the option of reaching all of them through us. At Safexpress, we pride ourselves in being able to cover every square inch of India, and deliver accordingly. However, the problem area is the cost of delivery. Delivering in far-flung or hard-to-reach areas is difficult, and since there aren't very many deliveries that happen to such areas, bringing down costs through economies of scale remains difficult. Retail companies aren't able to pay or absorb this cost, and hence choose not to serve such markets consistently. Safexpress has dedicated networks that cover 100 per cent of pincodes of India, those we know about and also those we don't. We have already delivered to over 20,000 pincodes across India in the last year.

Safexpress provides a host of services across the logistics spectrum to our customers in the apparels/ textiles industry vertical beginning from raw material movement to customised warehouse operations and inventory management which includes managing complex SKUs and size / colour level inventories, quality control, packing, bar-code labeling, price tagging, security labeling tagging. Through our 'Stock2Shelf' service, we provide store-ready delivery such as 'delivery on hangers', 'well-ironed garments', 'pairing jackets with pants', etc. There is an added facility provided for storage and management for apparel extras and accessories. With physical presence in over 600 locations and dedicated delivery network across India, we aim to provide a robust, single-window, end to- end logistics solution, to enable smooth forward as well as reverse movements in their supply chains.

Safexpress, since its inception has adopted eco-friendly solutions in all its systems. Our Green Logistics parks boast features like being naturally lit, with in-built insulation and hot air induction vents, etc. No or minimal electricity is used in warehouses throughout the day. They are constructed to aid good temperature control indoors without the need for any fans or other forms of electric cooling. Rainwater harvesting facility is up and running at all logistics parks which is recycled for irrigation and washing. Large green spaces and planting of 100-1,000 trees in all logistics parks, depending on size and location are encouraged and practiced. We also operate through an extremely well-maintained and serviced fleet to limit vehicular emissions. Through our latest Green Safexpress initiative we are focusing on the reduction in wastage. To this end, Green Leaders have been appointed at all locations to drive a reduction in consumption of electricity, diesel (in generators), water, paper, etc.