From White Paper to Reality
At Daymon, the Strategic Sourcing team literally takes the global sourcing process into their own hands. Understanding the growing importance of Brazil as a strategic location, Vipon Kumar, Daymon’s Chief Sourcing and Trading Officer, and his team recently traveled there with one of Daymon’s largest customers to identify new opportunities for customized implementation to align with the customer’s sourcing objectives.
Kumar and his team focused their recent visit on the state of Sao Paulo, which comprises 40 percent of Brazil’s economy, despite being only one of its 26 states. Sao Paulo also boasts the highest Human Development Index and is the home to country’s largest ocean port, largest airport and the headquarters of most of the multinational companies operating in Brazil and Latin America. All combine to make it an attractive sourcing location.
As reported in the February issue of Retail News Insider, Brazil is the second largest economy in the Western Hemisphere and fifth largest nation in terms of land area. The country enjoys a year-round stable climate with multiple growing seasons across several crops, including coffee, spices, sugar, cashews, and fresh and processed fruit products.
Prior to undertaking the trip, Kumar’s team began the scientific process of discovery. This included identifying the customer’s sourcing objectives, including categories and products, and using Daymon’s Global Supplier Portal to select more than 40 suppliers in the customer’s defined categories. Daymon’s Quality Assurance team then pared the list down to 25 suppliers who collectively produce private brand products for the largest retailers in Brazil, including Walmart, Pao De Acucar, Carrefour and Makro.
Once these leads where identified, then came the artistic side of sourcing—building supplier relationships. “Having face-to-face meetings with potential supplier partners to understand their character and business philosophy, and to verify before trusting their credentials, is a critical step in the process,” explains Kumar. “We have to be 100 percent sure that they will keep their promise of performance.”
As part of this effort, Kumar and his team, along with their customer, drove more than 2,000 miles in four days to visit each of the potential suppliers. “We showcased some of the best private brand suppliers in Brazil, which are pre-qualified to supply our U.S.-based customer’s private brand across the center store, including cookies and crackers, canned fruits and vegetables, fruit juices, tomato ketchup, pasta, cereals, cereal bars, fruit bars, nuts, vegetable oils, salad dressing and Asian sauces,” says Kumar.
By all accounts, the trip was a resounding success. According to Daymon’s private brand client, “with Daymon’s help, we were able to identify the path, shortlist our targets and lay some groundwork for the next steps to activate strategic sourcing from a white paper to a reality.”
To learn more about Daymon global sourcing solutions, contact Vipon Kumar, Chief Sourcing and Trading Officer at vkumar@daymon.com.