Save time and control costs with VersaCold’s Costco Gateway Program
Any food manufacturer that ships to Canada knows Costco is a major player in Canadian retail. In fact, in 2019 it became Canada’s second-largest retailer.
Amar Singh, a senior analyst on Canadian retail with Kantar, a global data, insights and consulting company, told Retail Insider that Costco’s recent growth comes down to food: “One of the reasons it has been successful is their grocery expansion. It’s more becoming a grocery store now with a very strong grocery presence.”1
This success makes Costco a key customer in the Canadian food market, particularly for medium-sized food manufacturers. Costco vendors know how important it is to deliver the right product to the right locations at the right time—even if they’re shipping in LTL quantities.
The Costco Gateway Program
As Canada’s only nationwide food-focused integrated supply chain company, VersaCold knows this too. That’s why we worked with Costco to design a temperature-sensitive warehousing and logistics solution that meets their demand for large volumes of product.
It’s called the Costco Gateway Program from VersaCold, and it helps our customers keep costs under control by holding and storing inventory from multiple vendors at our state-of-the-art distribution centres, and delivering consolidated loads to Costco by scheduled appointments.
The program operates out of four of our BRC-certified facilities across Canada, each located within a major urban centre: Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary. Working with Costco, we receive real-time orders, select and palletize co-mingled goods, and ship the product based on Costco’s order requirements. We handle claims and billing and send out regular reports.
The result? Cost-effective, problem-free order fulfillment and delivery that’s on time and trouble-free. No more difficulties scheduling delivery dates to fit Costco’s schedule or otherwise achieving on-time delivery. It’s an easy solution that meets all the needs of Costco vendors.
Reduced complexity, guaranteed compliance
The only service of its kind in Canada, the Costco Gateway Program has been running for over 10 years—and it shows, with over 253 million pounds of food shipped and countless satisfied customers. By shipping in consolidated loads with VersaCold, our customers benefit from truckload rates, even if their order quantity is LTL. We also have preferred delivery times at Costco depots, allowing us to deliver during off-peak hours, saving them time and cost.
Costco is increasingly imposing more complex order requirements on its vendors. The Costco Gateway Program helps our customers meet them. For example, we work with a US-based bakery supplier who ships to Canada. VersaCold holds their frozen inventory and then tempers, date codes and delivers their product as orders come in from Costco. This greatly reduces complexity for the supplier and ensures compliance when their product arrives at the depot.
As Canada’s largest supply chain company focused exclusively on the handling of temperature-sensitive goods, VersaCold is proud to offer the Costco Gateway Program to our customers, helping to ensure the safety, quality and freshness of their product en route to one of Canada’s largest retailers.
It’s just another way for us to show that Your food matters.
To participate in the Costco Gateway Program, or to learn more about it or any of our other warehousing solutions, contact our sales team at sales@versacold.com or 1-800-563-COLD.
1. “Costco Continues Phenomenal Growth as it Becomes Canada’s 2nd Largest Retailer.” Retail Insider, 21 Oct. 2019.
