Keppel Logistics launches new brand to provide full suite of services

KEPPEL Logistics, a subsidiary of mainboard-listed Keppel Telecommunications and Transportation (Keppel T&T), on Tuesday rolled out an integrated logistics brand to better serve businesses and consumers, as it moves to tap fast-growing spheres of e-commerce and urban logistics.

The new arm called UrbanFox is a multi-channel logistics and sales marketing solutions brand that has a full suite of capabilities comprising e-commerce channel management, warehousing and inventory, as well as last-mile fulfilment.

Said Thomas Pang, chief executive of Keppel T&T: "UrbanFox will deliver beyond logistics services. It can help brands to integrate their inventory with online marketplaces or help brands launch their own online platforms so that they can accelerate and streamline the processes along the omnichannel supply chain."

By bridging the gaps between online and offline sales platforms, he said that UrbanFox would be able to help businesses store, sell and send their products more effectively.

Already, global brands including Kao and Mondelez are on board with UrbanFox and are listing and selling their products on online marketplaces in Singapore.

In the next two years, UrbanFox said that it would invest S$20 million in automation and process optimisation to beef up its operational capabilities. The amount is largely funded by Keppel while the remaining comes from government agencies such as International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, Spring Singapore and the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB).

Law Chung Ming, group director for transport and logistics at IE Singapore said at a briefing that logistics businesses here should move into the omnichannel model where growth opportunities are abundant.

This, as e-commerce parcel and express delivery volumes are projected to grow by a compound annual growth rate of 39 per cent by 2020, a Nomura report had said.

Koh Poh Koon, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry, as well as National Development, said in his speech at the launch that the transportation and storage sector contributes to about 7 per cent of Singapore's gross domestic product (GDP) in the past five years. The sector, of which logistics is part of, provides 230,000 jobs.

"Last year, we launched the industry transformation map or ITM for logistics, with the aim to support companies, small and large, in making the change to become more innovative and productive. When we succeed, the industry should grow to S$8.3 billion in value added to our economy and create 2,000 new PMET (professionals, managers, executives and technicians) jobs by 2020."

The development comes about a year after Keppel Logistics acquired an almost 60 per cent stake in Courex Pte Ltd in October 2016 for S$4.6 million. Courex is a business to consumer startup that uses crowdsourcing for deliveries and cloud-based platform for logistics management.