In our continuing series of discussions with top supply-chain company executives, Donnie Burris of Burris Logistics discusses the challenges of Covid-19 and running a family business, as well as the advantages of diversification.
David Maloney has been a journalist for more than 35 years and is currently the group editorial director for DC Velocity and Supply Chain Quarterly magazines. In this role, he is responsible for the editorial content of both brands of Agile Business Media. Dave joined DC Velocity in April of 2004. Prior to that, he was a senior editor for Modern Materials Handling magazine. Dave also has extensive experience as a broadcast journalist. Before writing for supply chain publications, he was a journalist, television producer and director in Pittsburgh. Dave combines a background of reporting on logistics with his video production experience to bring new opportunities to DC Velocity readers, including web videos highlighting top distribution and logistics facilities, webcasts and other cross-media projects. He continues to live and work in the Pittsburgh area.
Donnie Burris became the CEO of Burris Logistics in 2010, after serving in a variety of management and operations roles at the company. With 25-plus years of experience at the organization, he is part of the fifth generation to work in the family business. Based in Milford, Delaware, Burris Logistics provides customized supply chain solutions with an emphasis on frozen and refrigerated products. The company has 2,000 team members, 16 distribution centers, and a fleet of 200 trucks and 450 trailers. It brokers 350,000 truckloads per year and has annual sales of $4 billion.
Donnie Burris is also a board member of Delmarva Christian High School and a former member of the finance committee of Delaware’s Bayhealth Medical Center. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, and has completed additional study in strategy and finance through Wharton’s Executive Education Center and industrial refrigeration courses through the Refrigerating Engineers and Technicians Association (RETA). He is also a graduate of the WFLO Institute, the educational arm of the Global Cold Chain Alliance.
Q: You are very strong in food distribution, which has been a critical need during the Covid-19 pandemic. How do you view the current state of the industry?
A: The government told the whole world what we have always known, and that is that our team members are essential workers. As a result of Covid-19, the frozen and refrigerated food industry has experienced an incredible increase in demand. Our team members—from our warehouse personnel to our drivers—are fatigued. We have had to focus on our partner demand and the well-being of our team to make sure the supply chain remains intact.
We have experienced increased demand at both the retail grocery and club-store level, while food-service has taken a hit. For Burris Logistics companies, our diverse brands enable us to be successful while experiencing vendor shortages and industry decline. The current state of the supply chain saw our different brands working together, as well as forming temporary partnerships with food-service distributors, to ensure their workforce was supported and our customers remained well-served.
During this pandemic, we worked equally hard to mitigate the risk of Covid-19. We needed additional team members, extra hours, different cleaning tactics, and catered food.
Q: Does your diversification help in weathering a down economy?
A: The diversification of our brands allows us to operate successfully even when specific industries become impacted. We see a countercyclical impact during tough financial times. During the lockdowns, Honor Foods, our food-service redistributor, saw sharp decreases as a result of restaurant closures. Traditional retail and direct-to-consumer fulfillment experienced record volume due to increased consumer demand. Our PRW Plus and Custom brands were able to meet this demand.
Our business has strived to build resiliency no matter the storm. We consistently turn our focus to our customer needs and the well-being of our team members, and it always leads us to an outcome that we are proud of.
Q: What are the advantages to offering customers both warehousing and transportation services?
A: Having a dedicated fleet is a value-added service for our partners, who can depend on Burris Logistics for real-time visibility, on-time deliveries, and consistent customer service. Additionally, our Trinity Logistics brand offers freight brokerage services that allow us to solve transportation needs anywhere in the country. By bundling these services together into one solution, we are able to offer more value and higher-quality service to our customers.
Q: What are the differences in managing a family-run company compared with a publicly held company?
A: Our focus is always on the far horizon. We strive to be the best at what we do ... not the biggest. Our focus is on building great solutions for our customers, taking great care of our team members, and positively impacting the world around us. As a family business, we manage the business professionally with a board of directors, while also being able to move very quickly and efficiently whenever there is a need to do so.
Q: Burris has been recognized for being a great place to work. How do you develop and maintain your culture?
A: It starts in the heart. We are a work-in-progress, but we know what we want Burris Logistics to be. We have taken the time to articulate those values that are important to us. We try to make these a part of our everyday life, and we look for leaders who possess a servant-leadership mentality.
Our business is about people; they make all the difference in the world. If we can create an atmosphere where people know they are cared about, know that their talents are being utilized and their work is making a difference, and know that we are pursuing excellence, then we are well on our way to the type of culture that we want Burris to achieve.
Nearly one-third of American consumers have increased their secondhand purchases in the past year, revealing a jump in “recommerce” according to a buyer survey from ShipStation, a provider of web-based shipping and order fulfillment solutions.
The number comes from a survey of 500 U.S. consumers showing that nearly one in four (23%) Americans lack confidence in making purchases over $200 in the next six months. Due to economic uncertainty, savvy shoppers are looking for ways to save money without sacrificing quality or style, the research found.
Younger shoppers are leading the charge in that trend, with 59% of Gen Z and 48% of Millennials buying pre-owned items weekly or monthly. That rate makes Gen Z nearly twice as likely to buy second hand compared to older generations.
The primary reason that shoppers say they have increased their recommerce habits is lower prices (74%), followed by the thrill of finding unique or rare items (38%) and getting higher quality for a lower price (28%). Only 14% of Americans cite environmental concerns as a primary reason they shop second-hand.
Despite the challenge of adjusting to the new pattern, recommerce represents a strategic opportunity for businesses to capture today’s budget-minded shoppers and foster long-term loyalty, Austin, Texas-based ShipStation said.
For example, retailers don’t have to sell used goods to capitalize on the secondhand boom. Instead, they can offer trade-in programs swapping discounts or store credit for shoppers’ old items. And they can improve product discoverability to help customers—particularly older generations—find what they’re looking for.
Other ways for retailers to connect with recommerce shoppers are to improve shipping practices. According to ShipStation:
70% of shoppers won’t return to a brand if shipping is too expensive.
51% of consumers are turned off by late deliveries
40% of shoppers won’t return to a retailer again if the packaging is bad.
The “CMA CGM Startup Awards”—created in collaboration with BFM Business and La Tribune—will identify the best innovations to accelerate its transformation, the French company said.
Specifically, the company will select the best startup among the applicants, with clear industry transformation objectives focused on environmental performance, competitiveness, and quality of life at work in each of the three areas:
Shipping: Enabling safer, more efficient, and sustainable navigation through innovative technological solutions.
Logistics: Reinventing the global supply chain with smart and sustainable logistics solutions.
Media: Transform content creation, and customer engagement with innovative media technologies and strategies.
Three winners will be selected during a final event organized on November 15 at the Orange Vélodrome Stadium in Marseille, during the 2nd Artificial Intelligence Marseille (AIM) forum organized by La Tribune and BFM Business. The selection will be made by a jury chaired by Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and CEO of the Group, and including members of the executive committee representing the various sectors of CMA CGM.
The global air cargo market’s hot summer of double-digit demand growth continued in August with average spot rates showing their largest year-on-year jump with a 24% increase, according to the latest weekly analysis by Xeneta.
Xeneta cited two reasons to explain the increase. First, Global average air cargo spot rates reached $2.68 per kg in August due to continuing supply and demand imbalance. That came as August's global cargo supply grew at its slowest ratio in 2024 to-date at 2% year-on-year, while global cargo demand continued its double-digit growth, rising +11%.
The second reason for higher rates was an ocean-to-air shift in freight volumes due to Red Sea disruptions and e-commerce demand.
Those factors could soon be amplified as e-commerce shows continued strong growth approaching the hotly anticipated winter peak season. E-commerce and low-value goods exports from China in the first seven months of 2024 increased 30% year-on-year, including shipments to Europe and the US rising 38% and 30% growth respectively, Xeneta said.
“Typically, air cargo market performance in August tends to follow the July trend. But another month of double-digit demand growth and the strongest rate growths of the year means there was definitely no summer slack season in 2024,” Niall van de Wouw, Xeneta’s chief airfreight officer, said in a release.
“Rates we saw bottoming out in late July started picking up again in mid-August. This is too short a period to call a season. This has been a busy summer, and now we’re at the threshold of Q4, it will be interesting to see what will happen and if all the anticipation of a red-hot peak season materializes,” van de Wouw said.
The report cites data showing that there are approximately 1.7 million workers missing from the post-pandemic workforce and that 38% of small firms are unable to fill open positions. At the same time, the “skills gap” in the workforce is accelerating as automation and AI create significant shifts in how work is performed.
That information comes from the “2024 Labor Day Report” released by Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute (WPI), the firm’s government relations and public policy arm.
“We continue to see a labor shortage and an urgent need to upskill the current workforce to adapt to the new world of work,” said Michael Lotito, Littler shareholder and co-chair of WPI. “As corporate executives and business leaders look to the future, they are focused on realizing the many benefits of AI to streamline operations and guide strategic decision-making, while cultivating a talent pipeline that can support this growth.”
But while the need is clear, solutions may be complicated by public policy changes such as the upcoming U.S. general election and the proliferation of employment-related legislation at the state and local levels amid Congressional gridlock.
“We are heading into a contentious election that has already proven to be unpredictable and is poised to create even more uncertainty for employers, no matter the outcome,” Shannon Meade, WPI’s executive director, said in a release. “At the same time, the growing patchwork of state and local requirements across the U.S. is exacerbating compliance challenges for companies. That, coupled with looming changes following several Supreme Court decisions that have the potential to upend rulemaking, gives C-suite executives much to contend with in planning their workforce-related strategies.”
Stax Engineering, the venture-backed startup that provides smokestack emissions reduction services for maritime ships, will service all vessels from Toyota Motor North America Inc. visiting the Toyota Berth at the Port of Long Beach, according to a new five-year deal announced today.
Beginning in 2025 to coincide with new California Air Resources Board (CARB) standards, STAX will become the first and only emissions control provider to service roll-on/roll-off (ro-ros) vessels in the state of California, the company said.
Stax has rapidly grown since its launch in the first quarter of this year, supported in part by a $40 million funding round from investors, announced in July. It now holds exclusive service agreements at California ports including Los Angeles, Long Beach, Hueneme, Benicia, Richmond, and Oakland. The firm has also partnered with individual companies like NYK Line, Hyundai GLOVIS, Equilon Enterprises LLC d/b/a Shell Oil Products US (Shell), and now Toyota.
Stax says it offers an alternative to shore power with land- and barge-based, mobile emissions capture and control technology for shipping terminal and fleet operators without the need for retrofits.
In the case of this latest deal, the Toyota Long Beach Vehicle Distribution Center imports about 200,000 vehicles each year on ro-ro vessels. Stax will keep those ships green with its flexible exhaust capture system, which attaches to all vessel classes without modification to remove 99% of emitted particulate matter (PM) and 95% of emitted oxides of nitrogen (NOx). Over the lifetime of this new agreement with Toyota, Stax estimated the service will account for approximately 3,700 hours and more than 47 tons of emissions controlled.
“We set out to provide an emissions capture and control solution that was reliable, easily accessible, and cost-effective. As we begin to service Toyota, we’re confident that we can meet the needs of the full breadth of the maritime industry, furthering our impact on the local air quality, public health, and environment,” Mike Walker, CEO of Stax, said in a release. “Continuing to establish strong partnerships will help build momentum for and trust in our technology as we expand beyond the state of California.”