Brown-Forman Corporation

FCI drives end-to-end fulfillment solution for Brown-Forman Corporation's online stores

Brown-Forman Corporation, one of the largest American-owned companies in the wine and spirits business, is a diversified producer and marketer of fine quality consumer products. Through Brown-Forman Beverages Worldwide, Brown-Forman produces and markets many of the most well known and best-loved wines and spirits in the world. They include Jack Daniel's, Canadian Mist, Southern Comfort, Early Times, Korbel champagnes, Fetzer wines and Bolla wines. Founded in 1870 by George Garvin Brown, Brown-Forman had sales of $2 billion in 1999, of which $1.5 billion was accounted for by sales of wines and spirits.

The Challenge

Brown-Forman Corporation was seeking an integrated E-Commerce Fulfillment solution that would streamline the entire process for online sales orders from established E-Commerce sites for four of their most popular brands; Jack Daniel's, Southern Comfort, Woodford Reserve, and Fetzer Wines. Brown-Forman Corporation acknowledged the necessity for single-source E-Commerce Fulfillment solution that would meet their client's expectations from point-of-sale to final delivery.

To make these online stores successful, Brown-Forman recognized the importance of partnering with a fulfillment company offering experience, speed and-above all-flexibility. Demanding a higher level of service beyond picking, packing, and shipping merchandise, Brown-Forman required service that could seamlessly offer a total fulfillment solution to manage gift wrapping, polybagging, kitting, customized pick tickets, customized boxes, and more.

The Solution

Louisville-based FCI continually offers its clients unparalleled innovations and personalized services, so accepting the Brown-Forman challenge was business as usual. Through its collaboration with FCI, Brown-Forman's robust E-Commerce sites for its various brands offer seamless order fulfillment. FCI leveraged an established expertise in handling online orders to address unique supplier issues. While some orders are simply picked, packed and shipped, others require FCI's expertise in providing kitting, gift-wrapping, polybagging, and other capabilities.

The Result

FCI, working in conjunction with its affiliate Corvus Digital, developed the back-end applications required to relay orders, inventory, shipping confirmations, returns, and cancellations between the Brown-Forman sites and FCI's warehousing system. These applications send orders shipping confirmations, returns and cancellations back to Brown-Forman.

By combining the strategic alignment of FCI's fulfillment capabilities with the full-service Internet application and development capabilities, Brown-Forman Corporation is provided with an integrated end-to-end customized E-Commerce Fulfillment solution. This streamlined order/fulfillment process removes geographic and time barriers, reduces costs and errors and maximizes Brown-Forman's profits.