Westlife Distribution, Canadian Logistics Company to Launch 3PL
Gardena, Calif.–based Westlife Distribution, which manufactures the 686 brand of boardsports apparel, and NRI Distribution, a Canadian third-party logistics company, have announced a partnership to launch NRI USA, a boutique third-party logistics company in Southern California.
The partnership is expansive. According to the companies, NRI USA will offer “boutique” turnkey fulfillment services, which include third-party logistics services such as pick and pack, inventory management, vendor compliance, freight, returns management and EDI; e-commerce solutions such as web design, studio photography, merchant services, shopping-cart maintenance and customer service; and a variety of brand support services.
A location for the facility has yet to be announced, but NRI President Peter McKenna said he expects to open NRI USA for business on Nov. 1 in a 100,000-square-foot facility in Los Angeles’ South Bay area.McKenna said that while NRI Distribution has worked closely with action-sports, outdoor and crossover brands in Canada, the target for NRI USA has more to do with the needs of apparel brands stateside than their market.
“There has been a lot of ongoing discussion over the years [with 686] about the fact that the types of services we provide [in Canada] are not readily available in Los Angeles,” McKenna said. “One of our strengths is being able to offer a high level of service for brands whose wholesale [sales] might be in the $5-, $10- or $15-million range. They get the type of service that a much larger company could expect.”
NRI has managed back-end services for brands such as 686, Quiksilver, Toms, Dakine, Oakley and Volcom as they looked to penetrate the Canadian market. Westlife has been providing back-end services for small companies for years, said Michael Akira West, Westlife’s president and founder. “Now we’re excited to team up with a proven leader and do it on a larger scale,” West said.
McKenna declined to name brands that have signed on for NRI USA services but said he has been fielding plenty of interest from companies. He estimates that the NRI USA facility will be able to process approximately 5 million units annually.
