Japan’s KYB Corporation, one of the largest suppliers of shock absorbers to carmakers and the aftermarket in the Eurasian region, has opened a central warehouse near the Russian capital Moscow. The new facility is expected to significantly improve the company’s distribution for wholesalers and car owners in the European region of the Russian Custom Union, which includes Belarus and Kazakhstan. A second warehouse to be opened this summer will cover the needs of consumers in the Asian region, writes Vladislav Vorontnikov

Andrey Melnikov, general director of KYB Eurasia, that the new facility in Moscow will allow partners to expand the range of KYB products on the shelf. He said dealers can order items that were either previously unavailable or which could only be ordered from its warehouse in Germany.

Now, KYB products, including shock absorbers, springs, protection kits and upper mounts, arrive at a distribution warehouse in Moscow directly from factories in Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Spain and Brazil. According to the company about 50% of the KYB products on the Russian market are produced by Japanese companies, the rest comes from the Spanish plant and a factory in Southeast Asia.

The fully-equipped Moscow warehouse covers 14,000 square metres and is located 3km from Moscow on the Kiev Highway. It offers a stock capacity of 1.5m units that the owners said should cover the needs of the three Customs Union markets.

Management of shipments is carried out with the use of a configurable WMS-system that automatically assesses demands in the warehouse and creates optimal routes for production transport according to priority.

In the Russian Far East, meanwhile, KYB’s shock absorbers and springs will continue to be supplied from Southeast Asia. At the same time, however, the company is planning the opening of the new warehouse that will be located in Vladivostok according to Melnikov.

“A similar complex to that in Moscow Oblast is planned to start operating there in the summer,” he said. “This will not only speed up the delivery of products to distributors but will also allow the company to more effectively combat counterfeiting, the main stream of which runs through the Blagoveshchensk city from China.”

Melnikov said the warehouse should significantly improve logistics in the Far East and the in Asian part of Russia, including Siberia, which is distant both from Moscow and from the Asian warehouses of KYB.

"For us it is extremely important that our clients receive the necessary parts as quickly as possible because the quality of service on the vehicles and end-user satisfaction depends directly on it,” said Melnikov. “Since the start [full operations at] the new warehouse the time of delivery to the Russian regions decreased from the usual 7-14 days to only 2-3 days.

He said that KYB was also working with express orders, the shipment of which is carried out on the day the order is placed. In addition, distributors have the opportunity to place small orders and they are no longer limited by the minimum number of commodity items.

“We also decreased the number of errors in the composition of our supplies,” added Melnikov.