The DHL Global Forwarding Start-Up Helpdesk is lending its expertise to a young Berlin company in the market to develop and optimize its supply chain.
Bonavi is a manufacturer of 2-in-1 pushchairs and prams. The logistics professionals at DHL have fashioned a custom, multi-modal supply chain solution for transporting Bonavi brand strollers by rail, air and sea.
The strollers are loaded directly into freight containers at the Chinese production facility and transported by rail along the New Silk Road to Germany in just 21 days. A deferment account was set up with customs so that Bonavi would not have to pay import duty – 19% of the merchandise value – immediately upon physical import.
The deferment period is one month, with levies then paid directly to the German Federal Treasury. This arrangement is particularly beneficial for startups seeking to manage cash flows effectively.
Nicolai Rehberg from the DHL Start-Up Helpdesk said, “Customs and import duties, alongside production costs, are a fairly substantial part of pre-financing. A deferment account offers financial leeway to young companies. At the moment, we are helping Bonavi optimize production planning so that they can gradually switch to cheaper ocean freight for their imports. Ocean transits run around six weeks.”
While DHL Express is used for shipping of product samples between China and Germany, DHL Global Forwarding’s air freight services are the choice for supplying replacement parts and accessories.
Distribution logistics and end-customer delivery solutions are provided by DHL Parcel. The baby strollers ship from the storage location in Hamburg directly to end customers or to one of 30 showrooms in the German-speaking region.
Niklas Ott, managing director at Bonavi, commented, “The DHL Start-Up Helpdesk is a really unique service. It’s a huge advantage to have a single point of contact for all our logistics questions.
“The process of setting our supply chain would have otherwise been much longer and more difficult. With DHL as partner, we are well-positioned to expand into other markets.”