Supply Chain by the Numbers: Week of November 19, 2009
   
 

-November 19, 2009
   
 

This Week’s Supply Chain by the Numbers – Christmas Sales, Forbes Best Supply Chain Companies, Abercrombie & Fitch, Chinese Influence

   
 

The Supply Chain and Logistics Numbers Worth Knowing This Week: Internet Putting the Merry in Christmas, Best of Supply Chain Companies, Abercrombie Takes Inventory, China Extends Helping Hand to Africa

   
 
 
 

8%

Expected rise in on-line Christmas sales this year despite the still struggling economy, according to a new estimate release this week by the researchers at Forrester.
 
 



 

6

The number of supply chain-related companies that made the latest Forbes 200 Best Small Companies list, as best that we can determine. To make the list, a company has to be publicly traded, and have outstanding five-year financial performance. On the list are Cass Information Systems (freight audit/payment and other services), Knight Transportation (truckload carrier), Forward Air (expedited freight services), Portec Rail Products (a variety of products for rail carriers), JDA Software (supply chain software) and Marten Transport (temperature controlled freight).
 
 
42%

Drop in inventories in the most recent quarter by retailer Abercrombie & Fitch, versus a 28% decline in sales, amidst what retail industry analyst Todd Slate calls “the biggest declines in inventory we have seen since we started tracking the measure in 1992.”
 
 
 
 
$5 billion

Amount of low interest loans and export credits that China is making available to African countries and companies, in a deal announced last month, as China continues to use its rising clout to gain influence in emerging economies.