How important is Black Friday, the U.S. version of Canada’s Boxing Day, and the newly created Cyber Monday to Ingram Micro?
Well the broadline distributor plans to ship more than six million products during the holiday season, which is peak time for the Mississauga, Ont.-based subsidiary.
Compared to last year, Ingram (NYSE: IM)is doing about two million more than 2009, which is a staggering statistic.
To meet the demand, Ingram is hiring nearly 3,000 temporary workers at its Advanced Logistics Centers to handle the holiday volume for picking, packing, gift-wrapping, and shipping.
Broken down Ingram told CDN that it expects to ship out two million packages filled with six million products each week over the holiday season. Now that is going to rival Santa Claus and his elves production levels.
Terry Tysseland, senior vice president, operations and supply chain, North America for Ingram said both e-tailers and consumers want to know that the purchased goods will arrive in time for the holidays, making on-time and accurate shipping key.
What will be Ingram Micro Canada’s part in all this? Well, about 150 temporary workers will be situated at Ingram’s Missisauga location. And, about another 50 temporary workers will be at Ingram’s Vancouver location. The other workers will be located mostly in Harrisburg, Penn, while other areas such as Dallas, Chicago, Memphis, and Mira Loma, Calif.
The terms of employment typically run from the end of October until the end of December.
The amount of product that moves through the company’s advanced logistics centres in the last eight weeks of the year tends to break all previous years’ records, the company said. During Ingram Micro’s peak season in 2009, North American ALCs shipped, on average, 6.3 million units per week – approximately 400 items per minute or enough to provide one holiday gift each peak week to every man, woman and child living in the city of Los Angeles for example.
“This year, we anticipate on the day after Black Friday – our busiest day – shipping nearly 400,000 orders; an increase of nearly 150,000 orders over last year’s single-day record,” Tysseland added.
According to Ingram Micro, included on the list of hot items this year are toys and consumer electronics such as HDTVs, laptops and desktops, tablet PCs and e-book readers, computer peripherals, GPS devices, audio and video, cameras, camcorders, digital frames and video games – all items that move through Ingram Micro’s seven North American advanced logistics centers.
Ingram Micro said it cannot accomplish record-breaking ship-to days without the support of local labour. Through this partnership, the company is able to deliver on holiday promises and help provide many with needed jobs and income over the next few months.
