Aldo will rely on Bleckmann for logistics in Europe

-Press Release-

ALDO Group has chosen for Bleckmann and that is good news for the Dutch region of Twente. With the  ALDO Group, the European market leader in the Supply Chain Management (SCM) in Fashion and Lifestyle Logistics sector Bleckmann, who is based in Twente among other locations, has brought in an important global player in the area of footwear and accessories. The Bleckmann warehouses in Enschede and Oldenzaal rank amongst the most modern in the world and make the company a key player in this market.
Europe: Logistics patchwork
‘In the current market with a multiplicity of channels such as retail, wholesale, franchise and e-commerce, we were looking for a player who can achieve our ambitions within the logistic patchwork of Europe’, says Patrik Frisk, CEO of ALDO Group. ‘We have 2050 stores and 2 million customers per year who purchase our products in all sorts of ways. That is why we chose for the best SCM that we could find.’ The proud Bleckmann CEO – Johan Milliau – adds: ‘And that is located in Twente, where we of course have more than a century of history in the fashion industry. But it is not only Twente, we are a Benelux operation for the European market and we are also making headway in Asia, North America and Hong Kong.’

Total retail
Throughout the last few years, Bleckmann has perfected the e-commerce approach and is now capable of constructing a full operational warehouse covering a few hectare in a few days’ time. ‘It is not odd that a collection passes through our warehouse several times’, explains Steven Rymenans, primary supervisor for strategy and international development. ‘We first unwrap a collection and sort and prepare it for retail. We collect what remains and either bring it to an outlet, store it or it enters the several e-commerce channels. We call that total retail. The customer decides on a strategy. We can make that happen.’ Meanwhile, the lead Beckmann acquired has paid off in terms of more e-commerce customers. ‘The fashion sector has paved the way for total retail and other fields are now benefiting from that’, says Johan Milliau. ‘Groupon is one of our most important customers in that area.’

ALDO Group to Twente
In recent years, the European market was supplied by two warehouses in the United Kingdom and Italy. These two existing locations will be closed and centralized at Bleckmann in Enschede in the next nine months. Starting this summer, the first batch of shoes and accessories will come in. The whole transformation will be complete in February 2017. All in all, the move from ALDO Group to Twente will produce a minimum of 80 jobs. ‘And if we look at the ambitions of ALDO Group, that number will grow even further’, Johan Milliau notes. ‘Total retail is good news for Twente.’

About ALDO Group
ALDO Group, whose headquarters is located in Montréal, Canada, is a highly successful company in the shoes and accessories sector. In 1972, Mr. Aldo Bensadoun founded ALDO Group and opened the first ALDO store in Montréal. In 1993, the conquest of the North America continent followed with own stores, wholesale, franchise formulas and of course in the last few years through internet sales. In 1995, ALDO Group started their conquest of the rest of the world. Currently, ALDO Group has 20.000 employees and 2050 stores on all continents of the world.

About Bleckmann
Bleckmann is a European market leader in worldwide Supply Chain Management (SCM) services. Furthermore, we have a strong presence in Asia and North America. Over the years, we have gained ample experience during our activities for large customers with branches all over the world – in particular for important players within the fashion, lifestyle and e-commerce sector.
Since 1862 we exploit a network for the distribution and logistics of both clothing as well as other retail. Our Belgian, Dutch and English branches are divided over several clusters with a total storage of more than 300.000m2. We provide specialized supply chain services to customers in the fashion industry and lifestyle sector. We enlist over 2000 full-time equivalent employees and have a yearly turnover of circa €200 million. We distribute 300 million pieces of clothing per year through mainly two company divisions: Transport (both b2b and b2c) and Logistics (warehouse storage and services with added value) and as an organization are highly technologically developed, flexible and customer oriented. We see it as our challenge to assist our customer in acquiring the highest market share possible as efficiently as possible.