Kaddy Fulfilment will operate purely as a B2B service, exiting all consumer fulfilment services following a review by new CEO Steve Voorma who has wasted no time in streamlining the business following the resignation of Dean Taylor.
He said, “Having completed the first stage of my strategic review, the potential of what we’re building is clear. We are generating good growth momentum with Kaddy Marketplace which has significant scalability across the industry with a growing base of 3,300 buyers and the 2,800 brands it represents.
“That said, the opportunity to be a best in class end-to-end Marketplace and Fulfilment solution in B2B relies on operational excellence across both divisions. Unfortunately for our Fulfilment division there have been extreme complexities by offering trade and consumer services which would require significant investment to get right. ”
The new operating model takes effect immediately and the last consumer deliveries will be made by
7 February 2023 and will immediately save the business $5.7m per year in operating expenditure.
“Drawing on my deep supply chain experience, I can see material cost savings that can be realised through exiting the consumer side but also by addressing challenges in the remaining B2B side of the business which will very quickly lead to significant improvements in efficiency as we move to solely focus on trade buyers and suppliers,” said Voorma.
Kaddy will operate under two divisions:
- Kaddy Marketplace: the wholesale trading platform connecting trade buyers with beverage suppliers across Australia
- Kaddy Fulfilment: providing specialised B2B warehousing and logistics services to the Australian beverage industry. Kaddy Fulfilment offers 35,000sqm of warehousing with state based depots in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, as well as a National Distribution Centre (NDC) in Albury.
Voorma said that he will drive further efficiencies by optimising Kaddy’s operational footprint and improving its third party supplier network.
“While we will see revenue loss from exiting the loss-making consumer side of the business, we expect significant growth in our B2B offering over the same time period to June,” he said.
Chairman Paul Evans said the Board and Executive supported Voorma’s recommendations which also includes trimming remuneration.
