Republic National Distributing Co. said customers with standard delivery dates of Wednesday (11/13), Thursday (11/14) and Friday (11/15) will not receive their orders.
Not only that, but the orders will be wiped out of RNDC’s system. Those customers will need to reorder on their usual order day starting the week of Nov. 17. Upper Peninsula customers will not be impacted by this change and should expect deliveries as usual.
This move is part of an overall plan to allow RNDC to catch up previously delayed deliveries and implement a number of operational changes at its new Livonia facility, the company told the Michigan Liquor Control Commission at its meeting in Lansing Tuesday.
The delivery delays were blamed on a major fiber-optic cut in the Livonia area last week, this week’s unusual weather and additional software issues on Tuesday night.
Deliveries have been running about three days behind schedule, RNDC said.
In addition to the order pause, the company said it will be moving about 20% of its inventory back to a facility in Brownstown, which it previously used. The two actions, combined with a number of other steps underway, are intended to restore normal service delivery around the state as quickly as possible, with significant improvements expected by Nov. 18, and a goal of normal delivery by mid-December, said Joe Gigliotti, Region President of Control States for RNDC.
Gigliotti said the service delivery failures are attributable to the company’s consolidation of operations from facilities in Grand Rapids and Brownstown (in downriver Wayne County) to an $85 million state-of-the-art facility in Livonia.
RNDC acknowledged that the delivery delay will be a major problem for some of its customers. It noted that the company will continue delivering backlogged orders through Saturday, Nov. 16. It also is telling customers that will calls will not be accepted during the Nov. 13-15 period.
“We know the decision to pause will create significant problems for some of our customers. We are not making this decision lightly. We are not happy about this. But we believe the sooner we can get all of these matters addressed without having to accept or deliver the new orders, the sooner we can get back to providing our normal high level of service,” Gigliotti said.