Royal Canin

Royal Canin, a leading supplier of pet food in Europe, expanded its use of the Descartes route planning and optimisation solution throughout its operations in France. A manufacturer of top-quality food products for pets, Royal Canin distributes its products to professional breeders, veterinary clinics, dog kennels, pet shops and agricultural cooperatives. For over 40 years, the principle "Dog and Cat first" has guided Royal Canin in its mission: to provide the most precise and adequate nutritional answers to the specific requirements of dogs and cats.

Royal Canin has 11 production plants and 4 research & development centres spread around the globe. Its headquarters are based in Aimargues, France. Royal Canin has been part of the Mars Group since 2002. Their initial deployment of Descartes’ route optimisation software covered seven of their fifteen distribution centres.

Frédéric Poirier, Logistics and IT Manager at Royal Canin, confirms the improvements seen since the initial roll-out. “We estimate that we've reduced our transport costs by 10% per ton delivered," said Poirier. "Descartes' solution gives us advanced decision support to create delivery plans that provide the optimal mix of our own vehicles and third party contractors required to meet our customer service commitments.”

Descartes' powerful route optimisation engine gives customers advanced capabilities to reduce costs and improve customer service by maximising vehicle and driver utilisation, reducing miles driven, and improving the effectiveness and efficiency of planners and dispatchers. The system's architecture considers different business rules, asset parameters, driver capabilities, geographic data, and other constraints to create optimal routes across a broad variety of operational environments. It also takes into account fluctuating traffic conditions to produce delivery schedules that better reflect daily driving conditions.

Descartes' comprehensive routing capabilities and ease of use is perfect for companies, like Royal Canin, who want to quickly gain results and expand benefits across their businesses.