After its central warehouse was destroyed in a Russian strike, the Novus supermarket chain was forced to change its supply chain operations. The company switched to direct delivery of goods from its main suppliers straight to the stores. This was reported by Dengi.ua, citing an interview with Mark Petkevych, CEO of Novus Ukraine, on RAU.
As the company’s CEO noted, following the attack, Novus launched a crisis response plan to restructure its logistics. One of the first decisions was to change the way it works with suppliers.
"The first step was to switch key suppliers to a model of direct deliveries to stores, bypassing the central warehouse. At the same time, we activated our backup warehouse facilities and rerouted product flows through regional hubs,” said Mark Petkevych.
According to the CEO, the company is currently continuing to fine-tune the new system and is working to bring it to a stable operational state. The main focus is on optimizing logistics processes and reducing transportation costs.
“The priority for the coming weeks is to finalize the setup of the backup warehouse facilities,” emphasized the CEO.
Novus has also decided to abandon its previous concept of a single large distribution center. Instead, the company is developing a more decentralized infrastructure with several small logistics hubs, which should reduce the risk of a complete halt in deliveries in the event of another attack on a single facility.
At the same time, Petkevych stated that there is no reason to expect a large-scale shortage of products in stores. However, due to serious damage to the logistics infrastructure, certain items may be temporarily unavailable in some supermarkets.
"When a large distribution center is destroyed, millions of units of product are immediately removed from the supply chain. There may be delays in restocking certain specific items, but basic foodstuffs and essential goods will be available in stores in full,” the company’s CEO said.
