HOUSTON (October 8, 2012) – Beverage industry international supply chain leader, Satellite Logistics Group (SLG), announced today that Free Flow Wines, a provider of turnkey keg services to the world’s leading wine brands, selected two of the company’s services to enhance their business operations: keg leasing and the reverse logistics Kegspediter® System to manage consolidation efforts for Free Flow’s Wine on Tap offering.
Unique to the beverage industry, the Free Flow Wines System enables client wineries to serve their wines to vino lovers nationwide in the most sustainable, environmentally-friendly and freshest way possible: on tap. Due to an increasing demand for their wine keg service, Satellite Logistics Group leased 6,000 kegs to the company over the last nine months to add more than 8,000 kegs to Free Flow Wines’ existing fleet. The kegs are used to distribute Free Flow’s client’s products to marquee operators such as Caesar’s Entertainment, Hillstone Restaurants, Starwood Hotels, and Sodexo.
Recognizing the cost lost or stolen kegs could have on their ROI and bottom-line performance, Free Flow Wines also chose to leverage Satellite Logistics Group’s innovative reverse logistics Kegspediter System. Kegspediter tracks, locates, returns and consolidates Free Flow’s empty kegs to properly manage their valuable inventory. The system has revolutionized keg management for domestic brewers, international brewers — and now wine barrel distributors — representing a potential savings of over $1.5 million per year.
“The beverage industry is entering a new era due to an innovative shift in thinking by companies like Free Flow Wines about how wine is delivered to the marketplace,” said Kevin Brady, president of Satellite Logistics Group. “Satellite Logistics Group is excited to partner with Free Flow Wines to enter the wine-on-tap market segment, and provide the company with keg inventory and our Kegspediter supply-chain solution to support their profitable growth and reduce increased costs as a result of lost kegs.”
Free Flow Wines works with more than 80 wineries and supplies wines to distributors in more than 32 states. Managing their complex web of kegs is critical to Free Flow’s success. “When we launched Free Flow, finding a trusted partner like Satellite Logistics Group allowed us to rapidly scale our business and focus on growing the wine-on-tap category,” said Jordan Kivelstadt, president of Free Flow Wines. “Reverse logistics is one of the great hurdles holding back the wine-on-tap movement and thanks to Satellite Logistics Group, we have a proven answer.”
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About Satellite Logistics Group
Satellite Logistics Group (SLG) specializes in supply chain management for the beverage industry. We deliver innovative and efficient supply chain solutions to help our customers manage their businesses more strategically and accommodate changing needs. Our core services include Kegspediter® keg management, LogiTrax® transportation management and EcoBev® beverage disposal. For more information, visit www.slg.com.