On December 5 last year, the warehouse of the fulfillment company La Squadra Logistics burned down completely, but barely a week later, managers Kristine Poels and Julie Smets were back to work with their team, in another warehouse on the same Hellebeemden business park in Hasselt. “We already knew this building from the past and we acted quickly,” say Kristine and Julie. “Fortunately, we quickly reached a rental agreement with the owner.”
The restart was accompanied by a sharper strategic focus. “From now on, we will focus on e-fulfillment and promotional fulfillment. With e-fulfillment, people with a webshop or companies place their entire stock in our warehouse. This runs via a WMS system so that the orders arrive automatically. We then start with picking, packing and shipping via our regular carriers or carriers. The other part is promotional fulfillment. We receive materials that are supplied via printing companies, marketing agencies or directly by the client. We then set the specifications according to the specified specifications. packages together and prepare them for shipping. We do this for brands such as Leonidas and Makita, but also for many projects and sports events from Golazo Sports, with the Antwerp ’10 Miles’ as one of the best-known examples. Before the fire, we also had a few machines for graphic finishing, but we will no longer resume that activity.”
Despite the organizational and financial challenges after the fire, the company was quickly operational again. “The support of our customers, suppliers and partners also played a role,” say Kristine and Julie. “Several companies and partners showed great sympathy: they sent nice messages, spontaneously offered help and even donated materials. That was incredibly heart-warming, we are sincerely grateful to them for that.”
