The Chinese Government gave a go-by and approved the first step in funding dramatic increases in air freight channel capacity, supported by the nation of China and Air China, its select air carrier.
This decision followed a presentation by Roger Cunningham, Senior Vice President Supply Chain Strategy within the Supply Chain Business Unit, DCB and Company Inc. Roger's presentation was based on a 2 year study for London Export and the Chinese Government on the future direction of Supply Chain Sourcing and Mode practices within the consumer products vertical.
Project Eagle involves an initial outlay of 1.7 billion by the Chinese Government to initiate development of robust and economical air freight channel between Asia and the United States, supporting consumer products movement. The channel will target the $50 and higher price point segment.
The air freight traffic is estimated by DCB to quadruple in 2020 for consumer products. The major advantages being speed to market and cut down on cost of land bridge expense in both Asia and United states. Besides, the air channel utilization eliminates a great majority of markdowns and exit strategy losses for the typical retailer. Idhasoft's current clients such as Talbot's and Hugo Boss employ air freight to source in excess of 50% of their inbound merchandise; resulting in some of the lowest markdown rates in the apparel industry.
It is DCB's contention that the speed to market principles entailed at these leading edge retailers/wholesalers will translate well to even more categories and lower price points as fuel prices continue to rise. In addition, competitiveness and product differentiation goals will drive an increased use of air freight channels through the next 8 years. Finally, as consumer products companies begin to grasp the rational application of Idhasoft Intellectual Property functionality, such as is entailed in our package Fourth Quadrant, the manifest benefits of speed to market will become poignantly clear to most merchandise planners.
We are proud of our supply chain initiatives and congratulate on the achievement.


