Steven Romo, MBA

𝐔𝐭𝐳 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐀𝐜𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐑𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐅𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐩. Utz Brands, Inc. has finalized an agreement to acquire specific distribution rights in South Florida from National Food, a third-party direct-store delivery distributor. This acquisition includes approximately 65 DSD routes covering key areas such as Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach, expanding Utz's presence in the region. With this latest move, Utz now manages over 200 independent operator-run routes in Florida, illustrating the company's commitment to growth and market expansion. Florida, being the third largest state in salty snack category sales, presents a significant opportunity for Utz, with retail sales amounting to $2.6 billion. Since 2021, Utz Brands, Inc. has seen substantial growth in Florida, with retail sales reaching $103 million and a market share increase from 2.7% to 3.9%. This transaction underscores Utz's dedication to capturing further market share in Florida, which currently stands below the average core geographies share at 6.9%. Utz Brands, Inc.'s CEO, Howard Friedman, expressed enthusiasm about the acquisition, emphasizing the company's strategic focus on expanding its regional presence and enhancing customer relationships in Florida. The move aligns with Utz Brands, Inc.'s expansion strategy outlined during the December 2023 Investor Day, aiming to offer their range of iconic snacking products to a broader consumer base in this important geography. #FoodManufacturingUSA #SnackFoods #SnackFoodManufacturing #USManufacturing

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Good morning Nashvile! Ready to launch into another day of learning, connecting with old friends, and meeting new ones at the CSCMP - Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals EDGE Conference and Expo! ~Mr. Supply Chain #AlwaysBeLearning #SupplyChain #CSCMP

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Another fantastic read from Malcolm Gladwell. Have you ever been up against the impossible? Have you ever felt discouraged or disadvantaged? This book uses awesome stories to show you how the disadvantages you perceive may be the biggest strength to help you overcome the insurmountable. If you haven’t read one his books In high recommend you give one a shot. #bookclub #growthmindset #leadership

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3 Steps To Leverage AI for Talent Acquisition in Trucking and Warehouse Industry 1. Automate repetitive tasks to save time and focus on strategic hiring decisions. 2. Create personalized messages at scale to attract top talent and improve candidate engagement. 3. Use AI-driven analytics to ensure fairness and enhance job retention. Contact us for a demo at https://lnkd.in/eSzm2uyM Share your thoughts or reach out to learn more! #AIRecruitment #TruckingIndustry #TalentAcquisition

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Warehousing friends, couple questions. If you do crossdocking, what are some questions you ask the customer or carrier when they call and say they need some pallets rebuilt that have fallen over inside the truck? Obviously, you want to minimize the risk of being stuck with these pallets if the carrier drops them off and never returns. Also, pricing, what should something like this cost? I get a lot of calls here for cross dock work and always turn it down but I'm thinking about taking the work for extra revenue.

Reliability and Peace of Mind…!!! In today’s market, it’s tempting to prioritize cost savings over quality service. With so many options available, choosing the cheapest service can seem like the smartest decision. However, opting for quality over cost can save you time, money, and frustration in the long run. Here’s why investing in quality service is always the better choice: Quality services are synonymous with reliability. When you choose a reputable provider, you can trust that they will deliver consistent and dependable results. This reliability translates into peace of mind, knowing that the job will be done right the first time, without the need for costly do-overs or fixes.

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A bit of pricing stability for the next nine months is desperately needed by a weary mailing economy. The string of increases has been dispiriting. Let’s hope that our CPI remains stable for the next six months or so and that DFA starts delivering the anticipated efficiencies to dampen the expected 6% to 8% July 2025 rate increase. Deb’s humor is always appreciated. 👏👏👏 Some facts to keep in mind. This is great news to kick off PCC Week next week. Hoping for more good news. The USPS will still retain the rate authority to spend the CPI increase which was “banked” and not used in January 2025. Let’s be thankful for what we will experience in the short-term. The USPS needs some DFA “wins”, electric vehicle cost avoidance and continued labor, freight and consumables ( including fuel ) savings to minimize the July increase. The election mail volume bump and resurgence in Holiday mail volumes sure won’t hurt the revenue numbers and bottom line. Yes, Santa, these are on my Christmas list. No Grinches, please.

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Check the latest news on today's International freight and trucking issues at the Texas and southern US borders.

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Warehouse Wisdom Wednesday! Let’s breakdown some warehouse basics. This week: Inventory Control If you’ve been following along then you know we have some material movement now as we’ve covered put away, replenishment and picking. The more your material moves, the more opportunity for inventory issues to arise. Inventory control is the task of ensuring that the right counts are in the right locations as expected. This typically means that your system is matching what is physically available. How do we ensure this is happening? Cycle counting! Cycle counting is an inventory auditing technique that occurs on a rotating schedule that could be daily, weekly or monthly. There are a few different methods that can be used for cycle counting: ABC Counting - this method gives your skus a classification of A, B or C with A typically being your fastest moving items and C being the slowest. A will get a higher frequency of counts while C will be counted less. Random Sample Counting - this method means that items are selected at random to be counted with no other consideration. Process Control Group Counting - this allows you to focus your counting on only items that were involved in recent transactions and have had movement recently. Zero-counting - this is the process of counting locations that show zero inventory. This is a great way to find inventory that may not be accounted for. Event-based counting - this method triggers counts when certain events occur like receiving a specific load, movement of high value material or other specific occurrences. There are multiple different ways to approach cycle counting and you can apply each method in different scenarios. It is also important to note that you can count by sku or by location. You can also do a full physical inventory where you count everything wall to wall in one occurrence but this typically means you need to shut down operations for a significant amount of time. Cycle counting and maintaining higher inventory accuracy can help you avoid physical inventories. Typically you will have dedicated people to handle inventory control and cycle counting but you can also utilize a method called count back. This is where anyone that is moving product in or out of a location will also count that location while they are there. No matter what method you use, don’t count inventory just to correct it, count inventory so that you can root cause why you have inventory issues in the first place. Use these findings to continuously improve your operations. Want to dive deeper into inventory control and gain more warehouse wisdom every Wednesday? 🧠 Sign up for the newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/eJP6sXh8

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How not to plan. People often ask me if my WMS can alert them if an item is running low on stock. I respond… “No, why would you want that?” I don’t want stock alerts when stock is running low, in the same way I don’t want my phone to beep at me every time an email arrives. It’s annoying and I’ll deal with it later at the scheduled time. People who ask me this question don’t have an ordered purchasing process and their inventory is out of control. They are continually surprised when stock runs out and so an alert seems like a good idea. Awareness of a stock out or potential shortage within your purchasing process is something you want. Stock outs, shortages and overstocks will still happen with the best purchase planning system in the world because demand is not fully predictable, so you need to respond, but you don’t need to be reactive the moment something unexpected happens. If you’re struggling with inventory planning or warehouse management and want to talk to someone, I’m here to help and you can book a call with me by clicking the link on profile. #inventory #warehouse

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Supply chain direct labor employees are the backbone of the supply chain. Investing in personnel is crucial to operational success. Effectively hiring, training, coaching, and mentoring supply chain direct labor employees is crucial for maintaining a productive and efficient workforce. Here’s a detailed guide on each of these key aspects: #SupplyChainConsulting #WarehouseConsultants #WarehouseDesign

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Supply Chain: SCAC Codes Given that there are thousands of carriers, there are also thousands of SCAC codes. It’s critical that you use the right one to maintain compliance with your retailer and control over your shipping. Here are a few you might recognize. Anyone have additions to this? AAA Cooper  AACT ABF Freight  ABFS Averitt Express AVRT XPO Logistics CNWY XPO Logistics XGSI DHE DPHE Bolt Express BXPE Daylight DYLT Estes Express EXLA Old Dominion ODFL FedEx Express FDEN FedEx Ground FDEG FedEx Freight National (formerly Watkins) FXNL FedEx LTL Freight East FXFE FedEx LTL Freight West (Formerly Vikn – Viking) FXFW RJW Logistics RJWI UPS Small Shipment Processing UPSN UPS Freight UPSG #scac #EDI #supplychain #logistics

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The AJC Group’s marketing team gathered input from a member of each team so they could share their view, advice and input about their positions within each division. These are really fun to read and see each team members responses and different views. Check out the post about Edison with the ELS team! #interviews #input #sales #marketing

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Not all warehouse transactions are created equal. Ever had your pickers tell you their productivity was down because they were picking bigger or heavier items that day? I used to have this debate often in a previous role where we had parcel shipments and LTL shipments. It was an ongoing debate on how to balance the productivity measurements for pickers who were doing one or the other or a balance of both. Without some deep data analysis it would be very hard to measure something like this. So I was quite delighted to see this update from Takt in their newsletter yesterday. Multi Metric Labor Standard allows you to put all of those factors into consideration which is awesome. What do you think about a feature like this?

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While more than 60% of logistics workers see their roles as long-term career commitments, many of them feel undervalued and overlooked.👷🏼‍♀️ This perceived lack of support is driving logistics professionals to seek employment in other fields, dealing a blow to employee retention efforts. With logistics a critical part of your operation, it’s important to ensure frontline workers get the respect they deserve.

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