Logistics Department – Interview with Jean THOMAS, Antoine MARIE and Jean-Yves CHERON
Corlet Logistic, a company of the Corlet Imprimeur 360° Group, offers many services. Jean Thomas is responsible for all Corlet Logistic activities. Antoine Marie is in charge of logistics operations and Jean-Yves Cheron is the IT referent for the logistics activity. All three of them tell us about these services, which are complementary to the activities of our printing plants and our mailroom service.
The services of Corlet Logistic, the logistics department of the Corlet Imprimeur 360° Group
Corlet Logistic’s primary service is to prepare and send orders on behalf of our customers to their own customers. Antoine Marie is in charge of a team of about ten people in the workshop where orders are prepared. He is also in charge of stock management. Jean-Yves Cheron is in charge of the IT part, the management of the customer files and the management of the computer equipment and its maintenance. Jean Thomas is responsible for the Athis and Vassy sites and supervises all activities while ensuring compliance with the specifications negotiated with customers. In addition, he ensures the smooth flow of data between the sites and the consistency of the distribution of storage between the two sites.
In order to prepare these orders, our employees take care of preparing the packages for shipment on time.
What are the classic challenges that you encounter most at Corlet Logistic?
Of course, they encounter classic and well-known problems in the logistics sector. As transport management is the final stage in the logistics chain, once the appointment has been made with the carrier, there are always potential delays in delivery due to unforeseen events or transport methods that disrupt the delivery time. It is possible to encounter problems of incorrect addresses preventing the arrival of the parcel at its recipient. As operators, the major problem for Antoine Marie and Jean Thomas remains the adjustment of staff to the workload. Indeed, the workload can fluctuate significantly from one day to the next and is difficult to anticipate.
The services and advantages of Corlet Logistic
Order taking, storage, preparation, shipping, invoicing.
“We have different services in our commercial offer. There is a whole package for the logistics part, from taking orders by telephone for some of our customers to invoicing and collecting payments on behalf of our customers. It should be remembered that Corlet Logistic stores the books of some of the group’s printing customers, but not only.
Indeed, our storage service is aimed at a much wider audience. The company was originally set up to meet the needs of one of the group’s long-standing customers. Today, we offer this service for the benefit of many other customers.
Our expertise is still mainly focused on books and magazines. This is why our production tool has been implemented from a methodological point of view to respond primarily to this type of product. Nevertheless, as long as the format is acceptable and it is not a perishable product or one subject to major temperature constraints, we are able to take on the product.”
“What is certain is that we will never be able to do car logistics, for example,” says Jean Thomas.
Some customers already entrust Corlet Logistic with other types of products. These include T-shirts, goodies and POS advertising.
One of the significant advantages of Corlet Logistic is that it is about two hours from Paris. This is an extremely positive point which allows customers to have quick access to their stocks while having lower storage costs than in the Paris region. In addition, the stocks are accessible to the customers in real time by computer.
As for many manufacturers, the current period is complex. Even if the war in Ukraine does not directly impact the company’s business, the health crisis has had a negative effect.
Cardboard suppliers have increased their tariffs by about 20% since the beginning of 2022. Customer billing has therefore increased accordingly, as the price change is too great to be absorbed. The price of petrol is not without consequence for the company either, since the transporters invoice their services by indexing themselves to the price of diesel. Even if the war in Ukraine does not have a direct impact on the health of the company, our three interlocutors have nevertheless noticed something else in this respect.
We have seen a lot of books about Ukraine, about Putin. We had to send some books in a hurry. As this is linked to current events, it is important to serve our customers quickly with this type of work.
Foolproof reactivity
Corlet Logistic has two types of orders. Those where the specifications stipulate a maximum delivery time to be respected and the others. The orders always leave the same day or the day after the order is placed, regardless of the content of the order.
“Overall, we have a success rate, except for the busy end-of-year period, when 100% of orders are dispatched on D+1 at the most. Depending on the time of receipt of the order, the quality of the content of the order and the availability of the books, magazines or other items to be dispatched, the order can be sent very quickly. If we receive the order before 10am, have the products and the file is correct, then there is no reason why the order should not go out the same day.” Indeed, if all the information is filled in correctly and the products are available, then the teams have no problem sending the order on time. This is why Antoine Marie insists on the accuracy of the information provided by our customers.
Any innovative projects in the pipeline?
“Green, plastic reduction projects, yes. We want to find envelopes where there is no plastic inside, no bubble in particular, to meet our customers’ expectations.”
Has the AGEC law affected you?
Of course. C’est à dire que nos clients nous ont posé des questions à ce propos. In our company, a product at the ‘end of its life’ is crushed. Le fait que le papier présent dans les produits imprimés soit recyclé est primordial pour nos clients. On a régulièrement des demandes de pilon pour des produits qui ne se vendent plus. This crushing is accompanied by a certificate to guarantee that the product is recycled.
They tell us that the demand for more environmentally friendly packaging is increasing. Indeed, customers want to have as little plastic as possible in their containers in order to limit their environmental impact.
On the same subject, Corlet Logistic has a 100% green and fun system. Leur entrepôt est situé sur un vaste terrain d’herbe. L’entretien de celui-ci, qui pourrait être laborieux, est devenu une occasion de plus de se mettre au vert puisque la tonte du terrain est réalisée en éco-pâturage. Depuis 5 ans, un prestataire y fait séjourner ses moutons et ses chèvres afin d’entretenir la pelouse. This is an environmentally friendly gesture that customers seem to appreciate when they visit the site.
Antoine Marie also reminds us that their customers are always welcome to visit the premises. Located about two hours from Paris, it’s easy to get there. This is also a significant advantage in terms of storage costs.
If you had to sum up Corlet Logistic in a few sentences, what would be the strong points that characterise us?
“Historically a very customer-focused service. I was going to say being attentive to their particular needs. Service provider, it’s aptly named, services with an ‘s’. As I said at the very beginning, it’s the complete package for a publisher. He doesn’t have to take care of anything, from billing to delivery to his customers.”
Their teams listen to their clients’ problems in order to provide the best possible response. “We can actually do everything”
“You are 360° like the group!”
“That’s right, 360°”
Link to the audio version (french version only)