Arvato Expands Collaboration with Rituals

Arvato expands its collaboration with Rituals Cosmetics and takes over logistics for the retail business in Germany for the lifestyle brand for the first time. The supply of the Rituals stores is centrally managed from the location in Düren, which has a total logistics area of over 110,000 square meters.

(Osnabrück/Düren) “Rituals and Arvato have been successfully working together for many years. Our partner Arvato handles logistics for the e-commerce business in several countries,” says Mark Hoppenbrouwers, Director Supply Chain at Rituals Cosmetics. “We are pleased to extend this collaboration to our B2B business for the first time.” The services include storage, order picking, and distribution of products throughout Germany, the company’s most important market in Europe. From Düren, the Rituals stores and shop-in-shops in the stores of retail companies Douglas, Breuninger, and Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof are supplied.

“In Düren, we utilize a complete hall module with around 11,000 square meters for the B2B business of Rituals,” says Jan van Meerbeck, Vice President Consumer Products at Arvato. A complete hall has been adapted to the requirements of the new contract. For example, wide aisle racks have been installed, and a cage storage area for aerosol products such as deodorants has been set up. The goods stored and picked in Düren include the entire product range of Rituals with more than 2,000 different items.

“We estimate around 3.75 million full cartons of ordered products annually, which we deliver individually or as full and partial pallets to the Rituals stores,” explains Jan van Meerbeck. While the stores are supplied three times a week during normal business hours, the frequency even increases to five times a week during peak times.

Space for Further Growth Planned

The logistics center located directly on the A 4 motorway between Cologne and Aachen not only has very good transport connections but also reserve capacities for the Rituals business. “We have deliberately planned with space for further growth and can integrate additional quantities if needed,” says Jan van Meerbeck. “We have already proven this with the e-commerce business for Rituals, where we started our collaboration in 2014 with two packing stations in Venray, Netherlands, and today process online orders in Benelux, France, the DACH region, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the UK, Poland, and other Eastern European countries, as well as the USA and Hong Kong from several locations in our global network.”

Photo © Arvato