Veke and Posti share a mission: to shorten a sofa’s journey from the warehouse to the living room. Veke’s growth is driving the rapid development of the logistics partnership. The winner is the customer, who receives their sofa quickly.
Article summary:
Posti manages the warehousing and transportation of Veke’s products as an integrated service.
Outsourced warehousing scales with Veke’s growth and converts fixed costs into variable costs.
A customer can receive a sofa purchased online in as little as two business days.
The partners are jointly improving delivery speed, transparency and tracking.
“Posti supports companies’ growth with efficient, tailored warehousing solutions,” says Jukka Pyykkö, Account Director for Posti’s warehousing and logistics services.
Eight truckloads a day. On average, that is how many Posti vehicles carrying Veke’s home products set off for destinations across Finland.
A customer who adds a product to their basket in Veke’s online store can receive their new sofa in as little as two business days.
Veke has grown rapidly in recent years, even outpacing its industry. Ensuring reliable deliveries and a smooth supply chain has required a dependable logistics partner.
“We could see that our walls would eventually limit our growth. Posti now manages the warehousing and transportation of our products as an integrated service,” says Markus Ranua, Range and Purchasing Director at Veke.
“Outsourcing warehousing enables Veke to grow,” Ranua says. From left: Veke founder Veijo Ranua, Product Manager Matias Ranua, Markus Ranua and CEO Kari Härkönen.
Warehousing scales with growth
When a customer purchases a sofa from Veke’s online store, activity begins at Posti’s Pennala logistics centre in Orimattila. At the warehouse, the sofa is packed carefully, relabelled and sent to its new home.
Before this, the products arrive at the logistics centre by truck and in containers. The containers are unloaded, and the products are placed on pallets and stored in their designated locations.
Warehousing plays a key role in the furniture business. Through the partnership, Veke increased its warehousing capacity while converting fixed warehousing costs into variable costs.
“The key benefit of a service warehouse is its scalability and the fact that we do not have to manage its operations ourselves. Nor do we need to worry about whether there is enough space for the products or sufficient resources to handle their logistics smoothly.”
Ranua sees long-term benefits in the partnership.
“Outsourcing the warehouse frees management resources to support business growth. It also ensures that warehousing can scale as the business grows. The walls no longer limit our growth.”
Veke’s range of more than 7,000 home products reaches new homes through Posti’s warehouse and Veke’s own warehouse in Ranua. Smaller products are stored in Ranua, where pine furniture made at Veke’s own factory is also assembled.
Our Pennala logistics centre has 70,000 square metres of warehousing space. We use the space wisely according to our customers’ needs.
Costs adjust to the flow of goods
Jukka Pyykkö says that outsourcing warehousing brings flexibility and cost efficiency to customers’ businesses.
“Outsourced warehousing converts fixed costs into variable costs. Whether a customer has one or ten pallets in storage, they pay rent based on the quantity. Handling costs for receiving and shelving goods or unloading containers vary with the flow of goods.”
Veke has praised our professionals for their agility, commitment and expertise during the warehousing outsourcing project.
The costs are predictable and remain under the customer’s control.
“What matters to us is reducing warehousing costs by improving inventory turnover,” Ranua continues.
Sharing information helps anticipate seasonal demand
Pyykkö and Ranua emphasise partnership and information sharing. In daily operations, this means that Posti’s team understands Veke’s seasonal activities and acts according to its needs.
“After the season, we move products from prime locations to more cost-effective storage locations for the customer. The products are always in the right and most appropriate place at the right time,” Pyykkö says.
A more direct route from the warehouse to the customer
We deliver large and small freight and parcel shipments for companies, often by the next business day.
A customer who buys a sofa from Veke’s online store expects it to reach its new home quickly. The partnership enables Veke to offer faster deliveries throughout Finland.
The partners have also developed a new service model.
“Together, we quickly and flexibly developed a pickup service. A customer can choose to collect a product stored in Pennala from the Voutila warehouse in Vantaa at 4 p.m. on the next business day. Together with Posti, we are doing everything we can to make the product’s route from the warehouse to the customer more direct and faster,” Ranua says.
Knowing where an order is has become increasingly important to customers. With Posti, the supply chain is transparent.
“Through our cooperation, we can provide customers with even more detailed tracking information about where their order is in the delivery process,” Ranua says.