“I think there’s going to be some people that come out on the other side of the pandemic way ahead of other people. I don’t know who those people are, and I don’t know what that’s going to look like, but I think the economic environment at the end of 2022 is going to be very different than it was in 2019.”
– Joe Donnell, Senior Director of Operations for Circle Logistics
One of the very strange things about 2020 was that while many businesses were struggling, especially small, localized businesses, many logistics and supply chain companies were experiencing tremendous growth because of changes in consumer patterns and the elevated needs of the healthcare industry.
As a high-volume 3PL brokerage company, Circle Logistics was a beneficiary of that opportunity to grow, but they certainly haven’t taken it for granted. In fact, they worked with small and regional breweries and distilleries to move bulk hand sanitizer from production to warehousing locations where it could be repackaged for shipment and sale to consumers. Each one of the 200+ members of the Circle Logistics team played a role in their ability to pivot and quickly serve the market.
In this conversation, Karl Fillhouer, Vice President of Sales and Operations at Circle Logistics, and Joe Donnell, their Senior Director of Operations, tell Supply Chain Now Host Scott Luton:
· The recruiting and talent challenges they faced in 2020, from the loss of the automotive sector volume to the scramble to hire enough people once business picked back up
· The potential they see for pent-up consumer demand to be released once the pandemic restrictions are lifted, and what that will mean operationally for supply chains
· The technology innovations Circle has been investing in over the last few years and what they see as the next frontier
See full episode transcript on Supply Chain Now.