[#263] Supply Chain in Numbers - Dec 9, 2024

Two weeks since BY's ransomware attack, 111 days of parcel surcharge, Solvento raises $12.5M, Sanofi plans 1B Euros manufacturing investment in China, Pickle Robot raises $50M

Welcome to “Supply Chain in Numbers.” This newsletter tracks significant numbers from the supply chain world. Five prominent numbers are published every Monday. If you have any feedback, please send it to me.

Two weeks since the ransomware attack

A ransomware attack on supply chain software giant Blue Yonder continues to disrupt the company’s customers almost two weeks after the outage. In a brief update to its cybersecurity incident page on Sunday, Arizona-based Blue Yonder said it is making “good progress” in its recovery from the attack, which hit its managed services hosted environment on November 21. The company said that “several” impacted customers have been brought back online but added that it is “actively working” with others to “return them to normal business operations.”. U.K. supermarket chains Morrisons and Sainsbury’s confirmed to TechCrunch last week that they had been affected. U.S. coffee giant Starbucks said the ransomware attack forced managers to calculate employees' pay manually. [Tech Crunch]

111 days of surcharge

Peak-season surcharges were introduced widely in 2017 and were initially in place for about 34 days. But since then, their duration has grown longer. This year covers about 111 days or nearly one-third of the year. Delivery surcharges have been around for years  - many aren’t holiday-specific  - but the higher-than-ever shipping cost is grating on inflation-weary gift-givers and retailers. While individual customers aren’t directly subject to all fees, rising costs often filter down. Baseline rates at both carriers will have been jacked up to levels over inflation in four of the past five years, including a planned rate hike for 2025. That will bring the cumulative price increase to nearly 33% since 2021. [MSN]

$12.5 million Series A

Mexico City-based Solvento is a platform that automates freight payments and finances invoices for truckers and 3PLs. It enables immediate payments for shippers. It raised $12.5 million in Series A funding. While the payment process traditionally takes 60 days on average, Solvento’s platform provides immediate solutions. Solvento expects to grow from 500 active carriers using its platform to 5,000 by 2025. Solvento, founded in 2021, has raised $10 million in equity and $53 million in debt. The company has provided over $180 million in cumulative loans to more than 1,400 trucking companies, with an expanding loan book and more than 100,000 freight invoices financed in the past three years. [Freightwaves]

1 billion Euros for insulin manufacturing

Shortly after a similarly sized venture from Pfizer, French pharma juggernaut Sanofi has unveiled a significant manufacturing outlay in China, marking its biggest investment in the country to date. Shortly after a similarly sized venture from Pfizer, French pharma juggernaut Sanofi has unveiled a significant manufacturing outlay in China, marking its biggest investment in the country to date. The new manufacturing site, which will become Sanofi’s fourth in China, is designed to beef up local end-to-end insulin production. Apart from the new insulin facility, Sanofi also boasts a separate manufacturing site in China’s capital, Beijing, plus production operations in Shenzhen and Hangzhou. [Fierce Pharma]

$50 million Series B

Robotic truck unloading fits the classic definition of dull, dirty, or dangerous jobs worth automating. Pickle Robot Co. announced that it had raised $50 million in Series B funding and that six customers placed orders during the third quarter for more than 30 robots to deploy in the first half of 2025. The new orders include pilot conversions, existing customer expansions, and new customer adoption. The Pickle Unload Systems have collaborated with staffers in production operations at distribution centers since the summer of 2023. To date, they have unloaded more than 10 million lb. (4.5 million kg.) of merchandise from import containers and domestic floor-loaded trailers. [The Robot Report]