Despite the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, Heaven Hill experienced an extremely successful year in FY21. As consumers spent more time at home, they shifted to learn how to enjoy their favorite cocktails and spirits there.

Meeting Increased Consumer Demand & Shattering Records

At the beginning of the pandemic, Heaven Hill experienced high demand as consumers turned to pantry loading, or purchasing product in larger quantities, due to public health and the economic uncertainty. This in turn resulted in our biggest shipping record ever in March 2020 – 1.2 million cases, averaging about 58,000 cases per day. Fast forward to March 2021, as the COVID-19 vaccine became more readily available, and the On-Premise slowly reopened, and consumers once again began visiting their favorite bars and restaurants. Despite this shift, consumer demand for our products is higher than ever as we experienced a record breaking 1.4 million cases shipped from the Bardstown Distribution Center in March 2021, averaging close to 63,000 cases per day.

While continued high demand played a huge role in reaching this milestone, Kevin Andrew, Senior Manager of Inventory and Customer Service, praises his team for their hard work and dedication during this time. “Ultimately this would not have been possible without very long days for our Customer Service and Shipping teams. We accomplished this record right in the middle of a time when we are seeing real Logistics Capacity issues on a global level like we have never seen before. Just about every Heaven Hill Core Value was on display daily to make this happen.”

Supply Chain Challenges

As the team contended with the increased demand for our products, the industry experienced a trickle-down effect as suppliers worked to keep up with an increased demand for packaging components and products bottled at other facilities. The shortage of glass, caps and closures, and other important packaging components has led to low stock or temporary out of stock status for some of our products. The Customer Service and Shipping Teams have had to be nimble and adjust schedules and orders with distributors and trucking companies.

Additionally, due to the pandemic, the trucking industry saw about 40% fewer drivers graduate from commercial driving schools resulting in capacity constraints for drivers. This shortage coupled with increased demand led to higher freight rates leading to higher turn over rates as drivers move to more lucrative companies for work.

Finally, port and rail yard congestion is at an all-time high causing delays for both inbound product and outbound loads that travel via railroad. Ports are also experiencing delays leading to cargo ships anchoring for up to several days waiting to unload.

Despite these challenges, the Customer Service and Shipping Teams have done an excellent job working with our distributor and shipping partners to ensure Heaven Hill product is available for our consumers to enjoy.

Meet the Customer Service & Shipping Teams

Heaven Hill’s Customer Service and Shipping Teams are key to reaching these important milestones and ensuring consumer demand is met. The Customer Service Team handles all communication with our distributor partners, working through order and shipment timing, status updates, product allocations, order adjustments, and more. They also work with hundreds of carriers that are selected by our distributor partners to schedule appointments for shipments and work through any necessary reschedules. Customer Service then works with our Shipping Team to communicate logistics delays and help minimize any unnecessary handling of orders, which has been more difficult given the current staffing issues carriers are experiencing.

The Shipping Team begins working two days ahead of schedule to allocate products to orders and ensure the automated system is working to prepare these orders in a timely manner. For low volume items, the team hand picks cases. In March 2021, the team handpicked over 34,000 cases, which is equivalent to about two full trucks of product each day that month. On the day of a scheduled pick-up, the shipping team works ahead to ensure product is staged and ready to load. The industry standard for loading product into trucks can reach up to two hours. The team averaged an impressive 50-minute turnaround time on trucks in March 2021.

“Ultimately we have a team of Forklift Drivers, Coordinators, Supervisors, and Managers working together across Shipping and Customer Service functions to make the magic happen,” said Kevin. “They are the secret ingredient for all of the successes we continue to see.”

We invite you to take the time to watch the video below to learn more about this important Heaven Hill team. We are extremely grateful for their dedication to Heaven Hill and congratulate them on this exciting milestone!

https://vimeo.com/571832436/5e5d79f630

“’Proud’ is probably the word that comes to mind, proud of what we are accomplishing for Heaven Hill’s mission but also so proud of the team working hard in the background to make it happen,” said Kevin. “I get up every day excited to work alongside them. We have 31 individuals from Customer Service to Warehouse Operations to Forklift Drivers that are passionately committed, working together, focused on our customers, extremely nimble during difficult times, and continuously looking to get better. All of this has been accomplished during very challenging times, and the team continues to live those Heaven Hill Values every day, so I wouldn’t be shocked if this record gets shattered again very soon.”