When a national retailer collapsed, one supplier kept moving.
Import floor load absorption, emergency overflow, and multi-channel redistribution — activated immediately, executed in parallel from day one through close.
Unpalletized import containers
Total inbound
Full outbound follow-through
Co-managed catalog build
In 31 days
Outbound redistribution
FTL, LTL, and regional
Single outbound, full accuracy
A 40-year specialty chain. 700 stores. $400M in debt. Wound down in a single announcement.
In December 2024, one of the largest US specialty retail chains — nearly 700 stores, 40 years in operation, over $400 million in outstanding debt — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and announced the immediate wind-down of its entire national footprint. A liquidation firm was engaged the same week. IP and wholesale assets sold within two months. All store operations ceased by early 2025. The chain's consumer products division had recorded a 24.8% sales decline in the prior 14 months. Closure was announced to employees same-day with immediate effect — no transition period, no runway.
The chain had been operating out of a 3 million sq ft distribution facility — one of the largest retail warehouse footprints in the northeastern US. That facility entered full wind-down. For the licensed goods suppliers who had built their US distribution around this retail relationship, the downstream impact was sudden, total, and simultaneous across every logistics channel.
Inbound still arriving. Outbound still moving. A facility at critical capacity.
A licensed consumer goods supplier with regional warehouse operations was caught directly in the collapse. Import containers already in transit had nowhere to go. Inventory buyouts began triggering without advance notice. Their own facility reached critical physical capacity. Inbound was still arriving. Outbound still had to move. Operations needed to continue functioning under conditions that made normal floor movement nearly impossible.
Anfex Promptly was brought in as the operational arm of the client's US supply chain — not as overflow storage, but as an embedded extension that ran logistics end-to-end while the client's own facility managed the crisis. This meant co-managing inbound receiving, building out the SKU catalog in parallel, integrating D2C fulfillment channels, and executing B2B redistribution — all simultaneously, from day one.
Six workstreams, executed in parallel.
Import Floor Load Receiving
- 27 FCL floor-loaded containers — fully unpalletized on arrival
- Manual unloading, sorting, and palletization at every container
- 993 pallets processed across 50 inbound movements
- 20 FCL floors received in a single 31-day window in month two
- No capacity failure at any point across the full window
Inventory Buyout & Unannounced Receiving
- Full truckloads dispatching without advance notice directly from the retailer's 3 million sq ft distribution center — forwarded to Anfex Promptly without pre-advice
- 300–500 case UPS parcel shipments arriving as loose freight from the same facility wind-down
- Inbound not always on master SKU list — received, sorted, and identified on arrival
- Anfex Promptly co-managed the 936-SKU catalog build as inventory arrived and was catalogued simultaneously
Live Facility Overflow Relief
- Client warehouse at critical capacity — transfers required to restore operational floor space
- Anfex Promptly ran live back-and-forth transfers between adjacent facilities to clear the floor
- Product moved to Anfex Promptly to relieve pressure; stock returned to client as orders were fulfilled
- Transfer coordination ran concurrently with container receiving and outbound dispatch
SKU Mapping & Inventory Integration
- Full SKU mapping built from scratch in parallel with live receiving operations
- Inventory reconciled across both Anfex Promptly and client facility in real time
- WMS integration and portal access set up mid-operation without halting inbound
- System-side catalog work coordinated between Anfex Promptly IT and client logistics team simultaneously
D2C Channel Fulfillment
- D2C fulfillment channels activated as part of the redistribution strategy
- Parcel carrier integrations set up for direct-to-consumer order dispatch
- 300–500 case UPS parcel flows processed and converted to outbound D2C shipments
- Multi-channel outbound managed simultaneously alongside B2B freight movements
B2B Order Execution
- Multi-location consolidation across Anfex Promptly and client facility simultaneously
- Orders consolidated to single dispatch point based on real-time inventory position
- Complex routing executed as inventory moved between locations
- Full outbound redistribution — 29 FTL and 40 LTL movements across 14 carriers
No sequential handoff. Building the systems while operating them.
All workstreams ran in parallel — import container receiving, unannounced buyout intake, live facility transfers, SKU catalog build, D2C channel setup, and B2B order dispatch — simultaneously, from day one through close. No sequential handoff. Anfex Promptly operated as a direct extension of the client's logistics infrastructure: absorbing what arrived, moving what needed to move, building the systems while operating them, and keeping outbound flowing regardless of what was coming in.
Inbound
- 45,277 cases received across FCL floor loads, FTL buyout deliveries, and UPS parcel freight
- Unidentified and off-catalog shipments received, sorted, and reconciled against 936-SKU catalog built in parallel
- No capacity failure across the full operational window
Outbound
- 41,834 cases dispatched across 69 movements
- 14 carriers deployed simultaneously — FTL, LTL, regional, and D2C parcel
- Up to 147 SKUs per B2B shipment — full manifest accuracy maintained throughout
A regional warehouse at critical capacity while import containers, unannounced truckloads, and loose parcel freight kept arriving. Anfex Promptly absorbed 936 SKUs across 45,000+ cases, built the catalog while receiving it, activated D2C channels mid-operation, ran live facility transfers to keep the client's floor clear, and executed full multi-carrier redistribution without a capacity failure. Every workstream ran in parallel. This is what it looks like when a logistics partner operates as a true operational arm of your business — not a vendor standing outside the problem, but embedded inside it.
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