BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (BRAIN) — QBP plans to change how it utilizes its four distribution centers, acknowledging retailers using the Colorado facility are at a disadvantage.
Marketing Director Adam Koepfer told BRAIN in an email Friday that those retailers "don't have the best experience currently," dealing with frequent split shipments and making it hard for them to plan and increasing shipping costs.
He said the goal is to have the majority of QBP's parts and accessories brands inventoried and in stock at the Reno, Nevada; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and Bloomington distribution centers and shifting bike inventory to the Brighton, Colorado, facility.
"This will reduce the number of split shipments, allowing retailers to better anticipate when they'll receive their entire order and help us keep free shipping thresholds down," Koepfer said. "It also allows all our retailers to order bikes from one location and take advantage of our five-bikes-ship-free policy.
"These changes are not effective immediately and will take time for us to accomplish, but this is the direction we're going.
The distribution changes are the latest news coming from QBP, which had another round of layoffs last month. Escape Collective reported QBP eliminated eight jobs in restructuring its product division.
After cancelling Frostbike earlier this month because of the federal immigration enforcement activity in Minneapolis, Koepfer said QBP will be at the CABDA West event March 18-19 in Las Vegas, offering some of its Frostbike educational seminars, and at the NBDA Retailer Summit there on March 16-17.
"We are thrilled to see this level of collaboration and support from our industry partners at CABDA and NBDA," he said.
