UPS set to fly Beaujolais to Japan

UPS Supply Chain Solutions is preparing to transport 700,000 bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau toJapan this month, a major increase on last year’s volumes. The shipments will enable Japanese wine

“This is an exceptional delivery operation both in terms of tight deadlines and tonnage. In lessthan 72 hours, we must move 750 metric tons of wine from France to Japan. This compares to 130metric tons in 2004. So we are marshalling all our expertise to meet this challenge,” said AlainGambuli, sales director for UPS Supply Chain Solutions France.

To facilitate the move, UPS Supply Chain Solutions has chartered seven cargo aircraft to fly toJapan between Nov. 5 and 11. The planes will take off from Vatry, Châteauroux and Brescia (Italy),bound for the Japanese airports of Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka. From there, the cargo will bedelivered to leading wine and spirit merchants in Japan.

The success of the operation depends on lengthy preparations and extremely fast execution. Atthe beginning of 2005, when Japanese firms placed orders for Beaujolais Nouveau, UPS Supply ChainSolutions booked its flights to ensure delivery. At the beginning of November, the enterprisestarted collecting the 750 metric tons of wine from local wine storehouses, located in the Burgundyregion of France.

The cases of wine will be taken to the airports and then transferred to dedicated warehousesusing special pallets adapted to air transport. Once in Japan, UPS Supply Chain Solutions will useits skilled employees to oversee customs operations, then the Japanese team will put cases onspecial road-transport pallets to their destinations.

UPS Supply Chain Solutions is well-established in Japan and provides daily import and exportfreight shipping by air and sea.