The Next Big Clip

Cited: Fashion and Apparel News

A division of New York–based Charles Komar and Sons, Komar Distribution Services is on a mission to start business on the West Coast.  A 350,000 ft.² distribution center in San Bernardino California was started two years ago for their own brands that include sleepwear and intimates labels and has since grown into Komar Distribution Services.  For the past 80 years the company has operated a distribution center out of McAlester Oklahoma and went west to satisfy its own distribution needs, which quickly found brands eager to facilities and resources.

Ron Weissbrod, Komar’s vice president of business development, said Komar currently has approximately 10 customers being serviced out of the San Bernardino location. Those customers represent 15-20% of Komar’s business out of the West Coast location, and Weissbrod expects that number to more than double in the next several years. He declined to name Komar’s current clients. But Weissbrod said customers include domestic and international swimwear, sleepwear, intimates, sportswear, dress, and children’s and junior’s brands that retail in major and big-box retailers through to specialty stores and independent boutiques. Client testimonials on Komar’s Web site count Liz Claiborne Sleepwear among its satisfied customers.

Down economy, interest up

As the economy forces companies to cut spending and reduce overhead, interest in Komar’s services has never been higher, Weissbrod said. “A good example is that of a swimwear company that only uses its warehouse 50% of the year, when it is actually shipping goods. The rest of the year the warehouse sits empty, but it is being paid for,” he said. “With this economy, companies are looking for ways to increase their efficiency.”

With its 40-plus employees and state-of-the-art facility, Komar’s San Bernardino location offers apparel imports, warehousing, distribution, supply-chain management, customer service, and accounting and back-office systems for bigger operations as well as boutique brands. “Everyone needs to lower their overhead,” Weissbrod said.

He declined to discuss Komar’s fee structure, but Weissbrod said most companies, whether they have their own distribution and back-office operations or outsource them, would realize savings. One way Komar could fatten a company’s bottom line is by reducing the kinds of costly mistakes that are often made when shipping to new accounts as well as big box or major retailers. “We work with so many retailers—and have for nearly 100 years—that we know their specific requirements,” he said. Meeting shipping requirements and “virtually eliminating chargeback’s” make for significant client savings.

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Technology, which allows Komar to track goods from overseas factories onto boats, into and out of the warehouse, and onto the sales floor, is another money-saving bonus. “If a company knows where every single piece of product is at any given time, from the moment the order is placed to when it is cut and sewn down to whether it has been invoiced and when it is paid, they have so much more to work with and can be more agile,” Weissbrod said.

Tech appeal

With the influx of interest and business, Komar is keen on staying at the forefront of technology—from developing proprietary software that enables it to keep clients informed in real time as to the status of their goods to implementing Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) mapping and compliance with “nearly every major retailer.” The facility is also Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)–enabled, something that is becoming a key factor for companies selling goods to the likes of Wal-Mart and other big-box stores.

“We are very technology-focused,” said Melinda Cook, Komar’s director of customer service. “Our array of services and clients requires us to be at the forefront of what is going on. It’s how we save our clients money and run our own business more efficiently.”

To communicate with clients, Komar has developed software that is installed directly onto clients’ computers. The dashboard, as it is called, gives clients constant access to reports such as sales reporting and history, gross margin analysis, style master management, reserve and bulk order management, inventory forecasting, production-order status, and real-time inventory visibility and control, a release from the company states. “The software makes everything visible and transparent. And it eliminates the hundreds of e-mails from different people that would otherwise be necessary from the moment a purchase order is written until it is delivered,” Cook said.

In fact, several times a day clients’ records are updated, which enables them to keep real-time track of progress of goods.

Currently, each client’s record is updated multiple times a day so they can track the progress of their goods in real time.  The software allows a client through constant access to reports to improve sales or to correct problems when they occur.

“The minute a shipment passes through our dock doors, it is in our system,” Weissbrod said. “That means a client can turn stock as soon as it comes in and that is something that is a big advantage in the current market,” he said.

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My Take: With the right ingenuity and innovation, this proves that any company can survive the tough economic times.  It makes no difference whether they are selling natural skin care products or custom packaging, technology can help them improve.  That is, if you use it correctly!

All the technology in the world cannot improve your the sales of your organic moisturizers or the sale of custom printed totes if you do not use it correctly.  In fact if you use it incorrectly, you may not be in business for very long.  Just because you have a computer with lots of software on it does not mean it will improve your business if you do not use it properly.

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