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The strategic partnership will have Maersk managing and consolidating Unilever’s ocean and air freight transport
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Under the agreement, Unilever’s international control tower solution, which will consolidate the execution of its global ocean and air transport, will be developed and managed to enhance visibility, efficiency and reductions in emissions
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Maersk will manage the operation of international ocean and air transport through its digital supply chain platform NeoNav
Container shipping and logistics giant A.P. Moller-Maersk announced it has signed a four-year strategic partnership with Unilever to manage and consolidate the multinational consumer goods company’s ocean and air freight transport.
Maersk in a release on December 16 said the agreement will see the development and management of Unilever’s international control tower solution. The control tower is an operational management solution which will consolidate the execution Unilever’s global ocean and air transport to enhance visibility, increase efficiency and drive reductions in emissions across its operations.
The value of the partnership, which takes effect from 2022, has not been disclosed.
Maersk will be providing operational management of international ocean and air transport, underpinned by its digital supply chain platform NeoNav, which serves as a core part of the agreement.
Maersk said NeoNav is a next-generation and first-of-its-kind solution that unifies the physical and digital logistics worlds to give end-to-end transparency, control, and improved decision-making based on data insights, following industry standards to ensure the confidentiality and neutrality required from operational management providers.
Under the partnership, Maersk’s logistics expertise, data insights and NeoNav management platform will bring further resilience, agility and end-to-end visibility to Unilever’s supply chain, which covers more than 190 countries around the world, the release said.
“We are excited that Unilever has chosen our logistics expertise and our technological platform NeoNav to provide an overview of the links that make up its ocean and air logistics operations. At the same time NeoNav also offers actionable insights on how to optimize the supply chain, for example in terms of carbon emissions,” said Aymeric Chandavoine, head of logistics and services at Maersk.
“We’re delighted to be working with Maersk to unify our global ocean and air logistics operations. Not only does this end-to-end approach ensure better service for our customers and reduce business waste, the added visibility will also help us mitigate risk, increase agility, and help us achieve our company wide target of becoming carbon neutral by 2039,” said Michelle Grose, VP for global logistics and fulfilment at Unilever.
The partnership with Unilever is part of Maersk’s transformation from ocean conglomerate to end-to-end logistics provider. Maersk is a relatively new player in the airfreight industry. The company launched its air freight forwarding service in late 2020 and announced last month it would acquire airfreight-oriented freight forwarder Senator International and add five aircraft to its operations.
The shipping company also closed a number of transport and logistics deals over the past two months. Maersk signed a global end-to-end logistics agreement with Danish Crown in October covering all the food manufacturer business units, delivering solutions on ocean services, inland logistics and cold chain logistics.
Last month, the firm sealed a long-term strategic partnership with wind turbines manufacturer Vestas for all containerized transport and signed a memorandum of understanding with global e-commerce furniture company Zinus for logistics services in 2022.
