How Hive helped Fruggies cut picking fees by 60%
Did you know that nine out of ten people do not consume enough fruits or vegetables on a daily basis? Or that every second, around twenty tons of untouched fruits and vegetables are thrown out by people around the world?
These shocking figures are what motivated Florent and Valérie to start Fruggies, a foodtech company with the mission to reinvent the overall consumption of fruits and vegetables for people around the world.
Fruggies aims to make the consumption of fruits and vegetables easier, faster, and most importantly, more environmentally friendly. They do this by creating organic smoothies in powdered form containing all the natural fibers, nutrients, and vitamins necessary for a healthy diet.
As the company started growing, it was essential for Fruggies to find a logistics partner that not only supported their needs but shares the same core values at heart. That is why they found Hive as their ideal partner.
A partnership born out of hypergrowth
Before partnering with Hive, Florent used to fulfill Fruggie’s orders from his living room. “We allowed ourselves to accumulate a backlog of orders and we found ourselves a bit overwhelmed”, explains co-founder Florent.
“The first time we received more than one thousand orders at once was particularly challenging. I remember it like it was yesterday. I would drive to the post office with more packages than space in my car – they were everywhere.”
The rapid growth became overwhelming for Florent. As a result, he started searching for the ideal logistics provider for Fruggies to successfully conquer the growth they were experiencing.
This decision was essential for the company and could not have happened at a better time. The transition allowed Fruggies to successfully prepare for the order volume boom they would experience later on when appearing on the national television show ‘Qui veut être mon Associé (QVEMA)’ the French version of Shark Tank.
“Our next step for 2023 was to step up by leaning on a logistics provider. We needed a partner to support us in our growth outside of France and into multiple countries in Europe. That’s where Hive was a perfect fit for us.”
Choosing Hive – Keeping customer experience at the core of their business
Florent had a certain set of criteria for his 3PL partner that he believed Hive satisfied the most. The main factor was the ability Hive has to help Florent grow his company whilst maintaining the successful customer experience Fruggies offers.
“We realized that if we really wanted to stay customer-centric and provide the same services that we did in 2022, with an order volume that is now fifty times greater, we had to start working with professionals that know this business, understand our challenges, and can respond to them in the best way possible,” explains Florent.
“Since founding Fruggies we have always aimed to stay customer-centric”, explains Florent. Which is why he needed to find a strong logistics provider. Partnering with Hive allowed Fruggies to maintain their customer focus whilst effectively handling their sudden order volume growth.
By working with Hive, Florent and his team are now able to concentrate their time in other departments to grow the brand. “Finding a new logistics provider was an essential step for us. If I’m the one organizing our logistics, then I do not have time for anything else. My customer service and satisfaction would be down because their orders would never arrive on time.”
A team willing to go further: Hive and Fruggies are a perfect fit
Florent was immediately pleased with the “human side” of Hive, as he explains.
“In every interaction I had with Hive, I could always see that they had the willingness to go further. The Hive team always suggested ideas to reduce our costs and to find a balanced middle ground, allowing us to start this long-term collaboration on the best terms.” – Florent.
The fact that Hive experienced similar growth and scaling challenges to Fruggies reassured Florent that Hive could help resolve and avoid future obstacles. Knowing he was partnered with a team that had a similar startup mindset to challenge old ideas and grow from feedback was motivating.
He is delighted by the successful operations set in place, especially after the order boom that followed their television appearance. “We immediately saw Hive’s reactivity and efficiency in dealing with this sudden influx.” Since appearing on the show, Fruggies’ sales have grown fifty times greater.
The different benefits Hive has brought Florent and Valérie, such as custom packaging, optimized operations through Hive’s warehouse management system and streamlined order fulfillment, as well as efficient delivery have made them “very pleased for now and we strongly believe we will stay this happy in the future.”
The Hive App saves Florent hours every month
Being able to outsource their logistics is not the only benefit Florent found in working with Hive. The additional features he uses in the Hive App are “game-changing” for him. Obtaining live updates on inventory and performance makes operations much easier to manage.
Florent sees the Hive App as a ‘cockpit’ where he can get a comprehensive overview of his operations.
He explains, “The Hive App makes my operations so simple. Since the beginning of our partnership, all I keep saying is that everything is so simple with Hive.”
The ‘add-on rules’ have enabled him to easily add marketing flyers, goodies, and gifts in his packages as a way to improve his customer unboxing experience, which is extremely important for his brand.
Being able to book freight quickly and easily in the Hive App has also meant a huge time save for the Fruggies team.
Florent explains that he is not an expert in this complicated department, so having to find the right freight providers was challenging and took too much of his time. He was relieved to be able to entrust this process to Hive so he could focus on his own area of expertise.
“Booking freight with Hive lets us focus our time and efforts on our core business knowing that everything is well taken care of.”
Hive reduces Fruggies’ picking fees by 60%
By constantly suggesting cost-saving initiatives and opportunities, Hive has become a trusted advisor for Fruggies.
“Throughout the entire process, we went over cost-saving initiatives across the value chain, whether it was about packaging, shipping methods, or delivery” explains Florent.
Fruggies products consist of small and lightweight packets that are sold in groups of four or five. This created excessive picking fees as they required more than twenty individual picks for each order.
“In terms of pricing, we could not have too many picks per order as this would drive up our fulfillment price. Hive quickly came up with a solution that is much more economically feasible, considerably reducing our picking and delivery fees.”
To address this, Hive implemented a solution to regroup the small packets with elastics in sets of five, reducing the total picking per order from twenty to only five, and therefore reducing their picking fees by 60 percent.
As Florent explains, “This was just one example where you really acted as a trusted advisor for us. It really comforts us in choosing Hive as our logistics partner”.
An eye on the future: expanding to new markets
This new partnership has allowed Florent Valérie to move along in their expansion plans. In the near future, Fruggies relies on Hive’s support to start expanding through the francophone markets in Europe. This will be followed by the German, Dutch, Austrian, and UK markets: all areas with great potential for the Foodtech industry.
The multiple Hive warehouses around Europe and the pan-EU network will facilitate Fruggies’ growth plan. As Florent explains, “a big advantage Hive has, unlike other logistics providers, is that you have many dispersed centers around Europe. This allows us to react quickly to any market opportunities and openings.”
You can check out Florent’s full interview exploring the milestones Fruggies has experienced from its founding and its collaboration with Hive on our YouTube channel.
