Owning the supply chain

October 29, 2021

In a world of constrained capacity, astronomical trans-Pacific freight rates and huge shipping delays, retail giant Canadian Tire is taking new steps to own its supply chain.

The company announced in August that it had invested $40 million for a 25 percent stake in Ashcroft Terminals, a private rail terminal that sits in British Columbia’s interior, about 300 kilometres from the Port of Vancouver. Majority-owned by Singapore-based PSA, the largest port operator in the world, it is the the country’s only private facility served by both CN and CP railways. Every train entering and leaving the Vancouver market travels through the terminal.

We sat down with Gary Fast, Canadian Tire’s vice-president, transportation, to learn how and why the company is taking control over more links in the chain.

“We own our distribution centres. We have our own tractor fleet. We own our own container and chassis fleet and, that served us well, but we’ve always gone third-party transloading,” he said...

This was excerpted from Inside Logistics.

Topic(s)

Freight & Transport

Information source

Industry Publication

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