AS 72: Where should I store my inventory? Choosing a warehouse with Tim Werkley

Today I had Tim Werkley on the show. Tim Werkley owns Swan Packaging Fulfillment located in Wayne NJ. Swan provides multi-channel pick/pack order fulfillment and FBA prep and support services, they were established in 1986 and operate a 125,000 square foot facility with 60 employees.

In this episode, you'll learn:

* How Tim's warehouse scaled from a small warehouse to the operation it is today

* Where to store your inventory if you are a private label seller, fba seller, wholesaler

* Best storage practices

* Rates for current warehousing solutions

* How Tim uses technology in his businesses

* The state of fulfillment with Amazon, and where it is going

* How the inside of a warehouse operation looks like

* Issues I have with warehousing and Tim's answers

* Machines in warehousing from carton labeling, to sealing machines

* Different solutions for different sellers

* How to optimize your supply chain and logistics

* How you can multi-channel fulfill with a 3rd party storage provider

* The evolution of Swan Packaging Fulfillment

* How to handle wholesale orders

* How Amazon acquiring businesses affects fulfillment businesses

* IT side of business

* How to choose a warehouse

* Where to store your inventory

And lots more!

Get in touch with Tim:

http://www.swanpackaging.com/

AS 72: Where should I store my inventory? Choosing a warehouse with Tim Werkley

DAVID ALADDIN: Great to have you on this show Tim.

TIM WERKLEY: Thank you David, good morning? How are you?

DAVID ALADDIN: Great, so you have a 125,000 square foot warehouse 60 employees, let's go back to the beginning where you just have one employee, what happened?

TIM WERKLEY: Sure so we were established in 1986 which is 30 years ago this year. We started in Roselle Park New Jersey with about 25,000 square feet something like that. It is a family business. I'm very fortunate to have parents who started the business and I'm the only child so taking it over was a great honor and privilege that they gave to me and they're great teachers and mentors and growing the business and helping to perpetuate it. So I do thank them.

So yes they started it in ’86, we had a small facility, we did what's called one-shot fulfillment. So we were packing books into boxes for one customer really and sending them out to consumers in the public and over time that evolved into other kinds of fulfillment as well as packaging.

So we did a lot of things like kit assemblies and shrink wrapping, different kinds of contract packaging services and then I'd say in the mid-nineties we started getting into order fulfillment. So storing inventory for some of the same customers and picking and packing and shipping orders and then as e-commerce grew and the services to support that became more popular to outsource at least we really convert away from the packaging business in primarily into the order fulfillment business.

And at this point we have about 125,000 square feet and about 60 employees. We ship thousands of orders every day across somewhere around 40 or 50 customers and it's a very behind-the-scenes industry that nobody knows about unless you are somehow involved in this for some reason but it's you know it's an important component of the e-commerce industry and a support network that allows packages to be shipped to consumers homes.

DAVID ALADDIN: Interesting so in the nineties and actually like while you're growing up you're working it was yo...