Shanghai Lifeng Logistics Co., Ltd.
Shanghai, China Site Visit
February 7, 2012
By
Eric Xiang

Key Personnel:
Mr. Zhang Xiangfeng, General Manager Assistant

Shanghai Lifeng Logistics Co., Ltd. (Lifeng) was founded in 1998 with a transportation focus. Today, with a staff of 1,300, Lifeng is a key distribution manager for mid-sized, supermarket suppliers. It serves about 4,000 suppliers and distributes to nearly 1,500 stores in China including Auchan, B&Q, Trust-Mart, and Wal-Mart.

It is headquartered in Shanghai and has branch offices in Beijing, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Harbin, Nanjing, and Nantong. It also has 120 representative offices throughout China to manage the distribution network.

On average, Lifeng handles 8,000 shipments per day and 1.7 million shipments per year providing door-to-store service (pickup from suppliers’ factory and direct store delivery). It has a central distribution center (CDC) in Shanghai with regional distribution centers (RDCs) located throughout the country.

To minimize costs and provide competitive rates, Lifeng consolidates most less-than-truckload shipments into truckload shipments using larger, full trucks from the CDC to the RDCs and then a smaller, full trucks from the RDCs to the stores. Lifeng has established solid relationships with all of the stores it serves. This helps in minimizing its delivery wait time and growing its customer base. Regarding transit time, Lifeng promises two-day transit time for shipments delivered within 400 km of the pickup location. Lifeng also provides reverse logistics for all shipments returned from the stores back to the suppliers.

Lifeng uses its own proprietary transportation management system and warehouse management system to manage all shipments and the distribution network. However, in order to keep up with volume growth in the future, Lifeng will have to invest more in its IT.

With 13 years of experience and 4,000 customers, Lifeng is very professional and competitive in this market. If it develops a more efficient IT system, we foresee Lifeng Logistics having great success in the future.

Sources: A&A Primary Research, http://www.shlifeng56.com/