Supply Chain by the Numbers
   
 

-January 28, 2010
   
 

This Week’s Supply Chain by the Numbers Jan. 28, 2010

   
 

Businesses Build Inventories at Last; Private Label SKU Explosion; Burlington Northern Operates more Efficiently; Walmart.com Ships for Less than a Buck
   
 
 
 

$5.4 billion

The growth in US business inventories in November (the most recent month of data available), following growth of $4.1 billion in October, which was the first rise in that national metric since August, 2008. Businesses are starting to rebuild inventories, the Wall Street Journal said this week, even before strong sales growth returns.
 
 



 

4000

The number of new private label consumer packaged goods products launched in the US in 2009, as retailers saw an opportunity to satisfy growing consumer demand for low cost products and to perhaps generate greater margins through store-brand goods. Private label goods have gained unit and dollar market share during the economic downturn, as retailers and branded manufacturers continue to squabble about pricing.
 
 
97 cents

The price Walmart charges for shipping for many of its health and beauty products at Walmart.com, according to Raul Vazquez, who runs Walmart’s ecommerce business. Walmart is strongly going after Amazon.com, Vazquez also said in comments to financial analysts this week.
 
 
 
 
74.9%

The “operating ratio,” or operating costs relative to revenues, that rail carrier Burlington Northern Santa Fe achieved in Q4, according to its earnings call this week – down from 78.4% in Q4 2008 (a good thing for profits). That is because Burlington, as with other rail carriers, has been able to hold rates fairly well, certainly versus trucking rates, and drive more network efficiencies even as volumes have remained very weak for rail carriers

 
 
 
 
 
 
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