Qualiko's case to success: expansion to a new market with optimized logistics

Qualiko is a major international brand of chicken meat owned by MHP, one of Europe's largest agricultural groups. Founded in 2011, Qualiko supplies chicken to over 80 countries worldwide.

Qualiko prioritizes safety and quality. Their chicken products are certified to meet HALAL standards, as well as Global Standard for Food Safety, HACCP, and GMP certifications. The company maintains a robust supply chain with 11 distribution centers and refrigerated trucks to ensure their poultry arrives fresh. Qualiko chicken is a popular choice for consumers in the EU, Middle East, Asia, and Africa.

Qualiko had been active in the UAE market for six months before implementing the system. During this period, the company encountered several challenges, such as acquiring customers and managing delivery logistics. 

Recognizing these issues, Qualiko identified the need for a robust Transportation Management System (TMS) to facilitate efficient planning, ensure quality service, and provide scalability crucial for its rapid growth.

To understand the company’s needs, it's insightful to trace its remarkable journey and endeavors in entering the UAE market.

• Initial Operations. Qualiko rented warehouses and signed an agreement with a carrier for several vehicles, increasing the number proportionally with sales growth.
• Customer Acquisition. The company used the Van Selling strategy to find customers. Vehicles acted as mobile warehouses, and products were offered directly to stores and restaurants from the trucks. After the initial sale, outlets were offered an agreement for regular product supply. This model increased the volume of deliveries by 70-100% every month for a year.
• Delivery Challenges. First deliveries to the Qualiko branch were made by air, but with the increased number of orders, they switched to truck delivery.

It was vital for the distributor to maintain and enhance the results achieved in six months in the new market. Therefore, the TMS system was subject to quite clear and strict requirements.

• Building a sustainable IT infrastructure. The primary goal was to provide technological logistics, not cost savings.

• Ensuring quality service. The rapid sales growth, combined with the lack of stable routing, could lead to the loss of existing positions due to a lack of scalability. A new company in the market could not afford to lose existing positions due to negative customer experiences, such as undelivered or delayed deliveries.

• Flexibility and scalability. The number of points continued to grow, and the TMS had to quickly adapt to new requests that static routing could not handle. A team was also needed to quickly adjust the system to the company's requirements and set up the logistics department practically from scratch.

Implementing LEAFIO Rinkai TMS involved several vital tasks, including route optimization for temperature-controlled products, vehicle fleet integration, and data adjustments to ensure efficient deliveries.

Routes were planned for products considering the temperature regime of each product. The particular details of the vehicle fleet, encompassing vehicles ranging from 3 to 20 tons, were also considered.

The adaptation of map displays to English was carried out. When the system was launched, it showed the driver the map only in the local language. This led to significant problems when searching for the unloading point since, due to the specifics of the UAE carrier market, most drivers do not speak Arabic.

Work was carried out with branch employees, and restrictions on the entry of trucks into a particular emirate were updated. This was done because the project launch coincided with the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Each emirate had its requirements for drivers allowed to enter its territory. Driver data and information about the availability of permits for each emirate were entered into the system. Based on this, LEAFIO Rinkai TMS automatically generated routes and assigned drivers to delivery directions.

The geographical coordinates of the points were adjusted so that the routes loaded into the application would lead the driver not only to the required building but also directly to the ramp.

During the project, more than 20 new charts and 17 parameters were configured to effectively achieve the project goals, including metrics for evaluating the driver and the entire department.

The implementation of LEAFIO Rinkai TMS has resulted in the following benefits.

A single logistics manager can now plan routes for all 1,136 delivery points and 231 vehicles.

LEAFIO Rinkai TMS automatically plans deliveries with maximum vehicle capacity, allowing the company to deliver multiple orders simultaneously with a single vehicle.

The analytics module of LEAFIO Rinkai TMS provides real-time tracking of deliveries and allows for the analysis of driver and route performance. This information enables Qualiko to make data-driven decisions to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

The percentage of late deliveries has decreased from 12% to 5%.

"Route planning is one of our core activities, and by using LEAFIO Rinkai TMS, it became more efficient, systematic, and accurate for us," shares Andie Milla, Logistics Coordinator at Qualiko.

The results achieved by Qualiko are a testament to the power of optimizing logistics with the right technology. We at LEAFIO AI are proud to have partnered with Qualiko on their journey to success in the UAE market, and we're confident that their commitment to innovation will continue to propel them forward.