Building the North American supply chain network to support Quad Lock’s growth

How Extolla helped an Australian-founded global retailer turn network complexity into an evidence-based roadmap for scale.

CASE STUDY | NORTH AMERICAN SUPPLY CHAIN NETWORK STRATEGY

Quad Lock is an Australian-founded retailer of performance phone cases, mounts and accessories selling in more than 100 countries. As the business continued its international expansion, “winning in North America” became one of its five major corporate initiatives.

But the logistics and fulfilment network that had supported Quad Lock’s earlier growth was not necessarily the right network for its next phase.

The challenge was bigger than deciding where to locate another distribution centre. Quad Lock needed to understand how its entire North American supply chain network should evolve to support future growth across the United States and Canada, while balancing customer service, cost, inventory and investment.

Extolla was engaged to provide the evidence, modelling and specialist supply chain expertise needed to answer that question.

The challenge: designing a supply chain network for the next phase of growth

Quad Lock’s North American network had evolved incrementally as the business expanded.

With North America becoming an increasingly important growth market, the business needed a clear, fact-based view of what its future logistics and fulfilment network should look like.

That meant considering a series of interconnected questions.How many distribution centres would be required? Where should they be located? How should the United States and Canada be integrated? What level of inventory should be held, and where? How would different network configurations affect freight and operating costs? Could greater distribution centre density improve customer service without creating unnecessary inventory duplication and complexity?

There was also the increasing expectation of fast delivery.

Customer expectations in North America have been heavily influenced by the “Amazon effect”, making one-to-two-day delivery an important consideration. But improving delivery speed by simply adding facilities and inventory could increase both cost and working capital.

Quad Lock needed to understand the trade-offs before committing to significant network investment.

Extolla’s approach: modelling the network as one connected system

Extolla approached the project as an integrated North American supply chain network strategy, rather than a series of individual logistics decisions.

The team modelled the interdependencies between service, cost, inventory, capital investment and future growth, supported by specialist North American resources who brought on-the-ground market knowledge to the analysis.

The work included:

• Modelling the optimal number, location and role of distribution centres and how the US and Canadian networks should integrate
• Testing different levels of regional distribution centre density
• Assessing the cost and service implications of inventory duplication
• Examining micro-fulfilment and the potential role of automation within 3PL environments
• Assessing inbound and outbound freight variability and regional cost drivers
• Evaluating the capabilities of current and potential 3PL partners
• Optimising inventory investment and geographic inventory holdings
• Developing detailed geographic scenarios and associated investment requirements

Importantly, Extolla’s role was not simply to identify a theoretically optimal network.

The preferred strategy had to be commercially viable, scalable and practical to implement. The analysis was therefore translated into an investment plan and transition roadmap that Quad Lock could activate as growth and business conditions warranted.

The impact: a roadmap for growth, service and cost performance

The project identified potential annual savings equivalent to approximately 5% of Quad Lock’s total North American supply chain cost, while also establishing a pathway to significantly increase 1-2 day delivery coverage through the recommended network.

But the value of the project extended beyond the headline cost opportunity.

Quad Lock now has:

• A clear roadmap for when and how to activate its future North American network
• An integrated future-state strategy spanning the United States and Canada
• A pathway to significantly improve one-to-two-day customer delivery coverage
• Optimised inventory investment and geographic holdings without unnecessary stock duplication
• Greater visibility of North American logistics and fulfilment options
• Stronger information to support discussions with current and potential 3PL partners
• An investment and deployment strategy that can evolve with future growth

Creating confidence to invest in growth

Perhaps the most important outcome was decision confidence.

This was more than a network optimisation exercise. Extolla converted supply chain strategy into a practical business investment roadmap, giving Quad Lock greater clarity about where to invest, when to activate network changes and how much complexity to introduce as its North American business scales.

Rather than allowing the network to continue evolving incrementally, Quad Lock can now make future supply chain decisions against an evidence-based view of the cost, service, inventory and investment implications.

For an Australian business competing and growing internationally, that creates a supply chain platform designed not simply for today’s volumes, but for the next phase of the business.

“We now have a roadmap of where we need to go in the future. We’re keen to activate the recommendations quickly based on the quality and strength of what came out of the study.”

– Peter Bainbridge, Chief Operating Officer, Quad Lock

Australian expertise, grounded in the North American market

For Extolla CEO Peter Kendall, the project demonstrates why international supply chain strategy requires both strategic expertise and an understanding of local market realities.

For Australian organisations expanding into international markets, supply chain decisions can quickly become business investment decisions. The right network strategy provides the evidence to understand where to invest, how to balance service and cost, and how to build a supply chain capable of scaling with the business.

The right expertise. When the right outcome matters.

Planning your next stage of supply chain growth? Let’s have a discussion.