Dive Brief:
- Bobbie, an infant formula company, opened a fulfillment center in Atlanta, Georgia, last week to better reach customers in the Southeast, Dominic Mills, VP of supply chain, told Supply Chain Dive in an email.
- Bobbie’s fulfillment processes is part of its key supply chain initiatives, Mills said. The fulfillment center in Georgia aims to develop scalable processes but also serve as part of its direct-to-consumer and retail business, he added.
- The company operates three fulfillment centers located in Pennsylvania, Texas and California, plus its sole manufacturing facility is in Heath, Ohio, Mills said.
Dive Insight:
When a shortage of infant formula hit consumers in 2022, Bobbie took it as opportunity to help build infant formula production in the U.S. It started with the opening of its Ohio manufacturing facility in 2024, which it purchased from Nature’s One back in 2023.
“During the shortage, the government’s temporary solution to import foreign formulas expedited Bobbie’s efforts to build supply and redundancy of our products in an industry that consumers understandably expect to be tightly regulated,” the company said in a press release.
The company has made investment in upgrading and securing new equipment and enhancing its quality control systems in the manufacturing facility, Mills said. “This focus on continuous improvement and manufacturing excellence allowed us to design and produce three completely new formulas in our first 18 months with more in the pipeline,” he added.
Mills said the company has ample access to formula production with its manufacturing facility in Heath, Ohio and now its focus its focus is on delivering products to customers faster.
“After production and release, our stock is shipped to each of our [distribution centers] in balanced inventory quantities to ensure we can deliver any product to any of our customers from any of our DCs anywhere in the U.S. quickly and cost effectively. We spend a lot of energy on maintaining stock levels so that no customer ever runs out of formula,” Mills said.
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