In the middle of his new 10,000 m\u00b2 warehouse in Neuville-en-Ferrain, Olivier Coryn, the CEO of Logvad, gives us a tour of the premises. The shelves are already stacked with products from one of his main customers, the northern French home decor chain Zodio. They will soon be joined by the stocks of other e-retailers, such as Devred and Kalicod\u00e9co, a subsidiary of Saint-Maclou, which is preparing to launch its e-commerce site. In one corner, boxes are stacked up, bearing the logo of the Parisian start-up Joone, which sells diapers on subscription. \u201cAt Logvad, we support both large groups and start-ups that are just getting started in e-commerce, such as Joone, which is currently very successful. The interesting thing about this business is finding logistics solutions tailored to everyone’s needs, whether they ship 3,000 packages a day or just a few a month,\u201d summarizes Olivier Coryn. Far from simply providing a warehouse, Logvad, based in Leers, offers turnkey solutions to manage all of its customers’ e-commerce logistics. \u201cI’m a logistics specialist, I’m not in real estate,\u201d says Olivier Coryn. \u201cIn our warehouses, it is our employees, assisted by our own software solution, who manage the shelving of products, then the picking, preparation, and shipping of packages, the management of returns… There aren’t many of us doing this job. I’m the only one in the northern region, there’s another in Paris, one in Lyon…\u201d explains Olivier Coryn. Today, between France and Belgium, Logvad processes some 4 million orders per year, in addition to a residual parcel routing activity with an annual volume of 1.5 million parcels. All of this is spread across around 100 customers, from start-ups that are just getting started and ship a few parcels a week, to Onatera, a website specializing in natural products, which handles 800,000 orders a year. <\/p>\n\n
Olivier Coryn acquired his expertise in parcel delivery during his fifteen years at La Redoute, where he organized logistics between France and Belgium during the golden age of mail order. Poached by Abx, a subsidiary of SNCB, he then developed logistics tools for several large groups on both sides of the border, at a time when the internet was still in its infancy. In 2004, when Abx disappeared, he took over some of its assets, including a 1,500 m\u00b2 warehouse in Roubaix with 17 employees, to create Logvad. \u201cI immediately wanted to get into parcel delivery. I sensed the internet was coming and I thought that the region and Roubaix would be at the heart of it. 2004 saw the arrival of ADSL and secure online payments, which marked the real start of e-commerce,\u201d points out Olivier Coryn. <\/p>\n\n
He found his first customers and quickly defined Logvad’s positioning. \u201cI have always believed that packaging is still marketing. The sale doesn’t end with payment, it ends when the order is received. And that’s where repeat business comes into play. If a customer receives a package late, in poor condition, or with the wrong product, they’ll order elsewhere next time, and that’s the end of it. My job is to make sure that my clients’ customers will order from them again, so everyone wins.\u201d And it’s all in the details, insists Olivier Coryn. \u201cOne of my first customers sold trinkets from all over the world, travel souvenirs for those who couldn’t afford to travel. We received merchandise from South America, and the products were packed with local newspapers. I called my clients directly to tell them to keep it that way, that it was the little extra touch that would make all the difference. It was a huge success,\u201d says the CEO with a smile. That little extra touch is the recipe that has enabled Logvad to support the first steps of major brands on the web, such as Nordnet and Nocib\u00e9. <\/p>\n\n
In 2005, Logvad Belgium was created, with three warehouses in Mouscron, \u00c9taimpuis, and Tournai. On the French side, there are two warehouses in Roubaix, and the newest one, which opened in Neuville-en-Ferrain in early July. Logvad will soon open at least two new sites, as the pace has accelerated since lockdown. \u201cWe’ve never had to chase after customers, but now there’s been an explosion, and we don’t know where to put them all,\u201d says Olivier Coryn. \u201cWith lockdown, online sales have skyrocketed. Many of my customers, whose websites were more of a showcase than a real e-commerce site, have seen orders skyrocket and have adapted very quickly. With Covid, Zodio, for example, has gone from 5,000 to 17,000 items available on its online site.\u201d Behind the scenes, Logvad is in charge of managing the business, expanding its facilities, investing in new warehouses, and recruiting accordingly. The company now employs 140 people, \u201cand many temporary workers,\u201d with annual revenue of \u20ac20 million. <\/p>\n\n
Another side effect of the pandemic has been the rapid growth of online food shopping. \u201cSince the beginning of e-commerce, we’ve seen major shifts. First, it was all about computer equipment, the \u2018geek\u2019 phase. Then it was kitchen equipment, and after that, textiles. Lately, subscription boxes have been all the rage in every sector, and we manage a number of them. Since lockdown, we’ve entered the ‘food’ phase, with everyone selling online. In fact, I’m in the process of equipping some of my warehouses with refrigerators so that I can sell fresh produce. That’s really what’s working right now.\u201d Olivier Coryn has also joined forces with his German counterpart PVS to create a joint venture specializing in the international shipping of food, particularly fresh produce. <\/p>\n\n
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Logistics company Logvad has just opened a new warehouse in Neuville-en-Ferrain, near Lille. The 10,000 m\u00b2 facility will enable it to support its customers who are ramping up their e-commerce activities, an unexpected side effect of the Covid-19 epidemic and lockdown. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2165,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-non-categorise"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/logvad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/logvad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/logvad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/logvad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/logvad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/logvad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/logvad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/logvad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/logvad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/logvad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}