From co-packer to a full 3PL: our story

What exactly is a 3PL?

Before we continue with our story, first the term itself. 3PL stands for third party logistics, in other words an external logistics service provider. A 3PL is a partner to whom you outsource a large part of your logistics: storing your inventory, processing and shipping your orders and distributing your goods. Instead of renting a warehouse, hiring staff and arranging transport yourself, you place that with one party that specialises in it.

A full 3PL usually takes care of these links:

• Warehousing: storing and managing your inventory, with insight into what is on the shelves and what is moving.
• Fulfillment: picking, packing and shipping orders (pick and pack), whether they go to consumers, shops or distribution centres.
• Distribution and hub services: bundling, cross-docking and forwarding flows of goods, often from a centrally located site.
• Value added logistics: work on the product itself, such as labeling, repacking, rework and assembly.

In practice this means you outsource your storage and shipping to one party, together with the value-added work and distribution that go with it. You do not have to run a warehouse or manage a carrier yourself: your 3PL takes care of that.

The term is often listed in a sequence. A 1PL is a company that does its logistics entirely itself, a 2PL is a carrier that only provides transport, a 3PL is a partner that handles storage, fulfillment and distribution as a whole, and a 4PL is a director that manages the entire logistics chain without owning warehouses itself. A 3PL therefore sits at the point where the real hands-on work comes together: the physical goods, the value-added work and the shipping, all in house.

3PL, 4PL and fulfillment: what is the difference?

In practice these terms are often used interchangeably, even though they do not mean the same thing. The distinction helps you decide what you need.

• Fulfillment is one part: picking, packing and shipping orders. A fulfillment provider does that well, but does not automatically cover large-scale storage, container handling or value added logistics.
• 3PL is broader. A 3PL combines storage, fulfillment and distribution into one package, usually complemented by value-added work such as labeling and rework. You have one partner for the entire physical handling, from arrival to delivery.
• 4PL moves one step further away from execution. A 4PL directs and optimises your whole logistics network, often with several underlying service providers, but does not necessarily carry out the work itself.

Service Pack is a 3PL in the most practical sense of the word. We do the work ourselves, in our own facilities, with our own people. That is exactly what many companies are looking for: not just a director, but a party that rolls up its sleeves and carries the full physical logistics.

The beginning: co-packer, more than 30 years ago

Service Pack started out as a co-packer. Assembling products, packing, repacking and building displays for brands that wanted their product looking perfect on the shelf. That is craftsmanship, with an eye for detail and for what the client and the retailer need. In those years we learned how a product moves through a chain and where things go wrong when the coordination is off.

That foundation matters for understanding the rest of our story. We did not emerge from a logistics blueprint, but from the product itself. That is still part of everything we do.

Growing from client needs, not from a strategy

What happened next was not dreamed up at a drawing board. Every new service came about because a client asked us for something that fell just outside what we offered at the time. Instead of saying no, we went and looked at whether we could do it. Each time we saw the opportunity, built up the experience and made it part of what we are reliably good at. That is how the links were added one by one.

Where that brought us: a full 3PL

If you line up those links side by side, you see exactly what a 3PL, a third party logistics partner, is: storage, fulfillment and distribution under one roof, with the value-added work such as co-packing, labeling and rework on top. We did not buy or claim that as a package, it grew organically. That very order is our advantage. Because every step arose from a real need and was honed in practice, the whole rests on a strong foundation.

That foundation is concrete. We work from 45,000 m² in Etten-Leur, about 30 minutes from the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp. We are ISO 9001 and Skal certified, work without minimum volumes or a fixed contract term, and serve clients in food, FMCG, retail and e-commerce. No theory, but an operation that runs every day.

What does outsourcing logistics to a 3PL give you?

Outsourcing your logistics to a 3PL is not a goal in itself, it has to deliver something for you. These are the benefits our clients notice most strongly in practice:

• One point of contact for the whole chain. No separate parties for storage, value-added work and shipping that you have to align yourself, but one partner and one process. That saves coordination, emails and the risk of errors at handovers.
• Lower total costs. Because storage, value-added work and shipping come together at one location, the intermediate transport between links disappears. You also turn fixed costs into variable costs: you pay for what you use.
• Scaling with your volume. We absorb peaks around promotions, launches or seasons without you having to arrange extra space or staff yourself. If you grow, we grow with you. If things slow down for a while, you do not pay for that.
• Fewer transport movements. Everything under one roof means fewer trips between locations, and therefore a lower CO2 footprint. A more efficient chain is often a greener chain.
• Access to experience and certification. You make use of processes, people and certificates we built up over thirty years, without having to develop them yourself.
• Focus on your own business. While we carry the logistics, you can focus on your product, your market and your clients. That is ultimately what it is all about.

Who 3PL really makes sense for

3PL is not the right choice for every company, but for some it is exactly what they need. In practice we see a few types of client coming back again and again:

• Start-ups and newly launched companies. Early on they want to outsource their inventory and processes without setting up their own warehouse straight away. Sometimes temporarily, until they have their own space. Sometimes permanently, simply because it works so well and they can focus on their product.
• Large players that place part of their process with us. For them we pick at pallet level towards shops, and that quickly adds up to several trucks a day. They keep control themselves and let us run a clearly defined but substantial part of the operation.
• Established companies that place their entire inventory with us. This is what we see most often so far: the complete inventory sits with us and we handle everything from start to finish.

Within that last group, two situations stand out:

• Inventory that still needs work. Products that first require a round of rework before they can go to market, from repacking and relabeling to corrections. That stock sits with us and is dealt with on the spot, in the right place.
• A base in the European market. Companies from, for example, the United States, the United Kingdom or Asia that want to enter the European market use us as their logistics base. They do not need their own warehouse, staff or office here: we receive their goods via Rotterdam and Antwerp, take care of EU-compliant labeling and value-added work, store the inventory and arrange fulfillment and distribution throughout Europe.

Are you a foreign company looking to enter the European market without setting up your own office here straight away? Then a 3PL partner in the Netherlands is often the fastest and most cost-effective way. You supply your products, we handle the receipt, storage, EU labeling, order processing and distribution from one central location, 30 minutes from Rotterdam and Antwerp. That way you build a European presence step by step, with low fixed costs and no long lead time. It makes us a European fulfillment partner you can rely on from day one.

What to look for when choosing a 3PL partner

Choosing a 3PL is a long-term decision: you place a large part of your operation in someone else's hands. These are the points that, in our view, really matter:

• Breadth of the offering. Can the partner really carry the whole chain, or only a piece of it? The more links under one roof, the fewer handovers and the smoother it runs.
• Flexibility and conditions. Are minimum volumes or long contracts required? We deliberately work without those thresholds, because every client and every volume is different.
• Location. A central location relative to the ports and your sales market saves transport time and costs. Our location in Etten-Leur, 30 minutes from Rotterdam and Antwerp, is a concrete example of that.
• Certification and compliance. In food and cosmetics especially, marks such as ISO 9001 and Skal are not a formality but a requirement. Ask about them.
• Communication and transparency. What happens when something is not right? A good partner flags discrepancies immediately and thinks along with you, instead of quietly fixing them or passing them on.
• Experience with your situation. A party that already knows your type of product, sector or challenge does not have to reinvent the wheel.

What sets Service Pack apart as a 3PL

There are more logistics service providers that call themselves a 3PL. What sets us apart comes from exactly that organic growth this story is about:

• Thirty years of accumulated experience. We learned to master every link ourselves before it became a service. That experience sits in our people and our processes, not in a purchase order.
• Everything in house, under one roof. Storage, fulfillment, distribution, labeling, rework and assembly all happen at one location. No subcontractors for the core of the work, so no loss of quality at handovers.
• No minimum volumes or fixed contracts. Whether you have one pallet or thousands of shipments, you are welcome and you are not tied to anything. That makes us accessible to start-ups and large players alike.
• Central location. From Etten-Leur we are 30 minutes from Rotterdam and Antwerp, the two largest container ports in Europe. Shorter lines, lower transport costs.
• Able to act fast. It happens that a client calls us the same day with an urgent request. Because we are operational every day, we can often simply look at what is possible that day and arrange it.
• Scaling up when needed. If there is urgency, we do not sell you a no. We scale up where needed and deploy extra capacity, and that applies to all our processes, from intake to shipping.
• At home in food and FMCG. We are Skal and ISO 9001 certified and work with FIFO and best-before-date registration. Products with shelf-life requirements and compliance rules are daily practice for us.
• As little friction as possible, as much peace of mind as possible. We keep the lines short and communication efficient, and take work off your hands wherever we can. The less you have to worry about the logistics, the better we have done our job.
• Work with social value. About half of our work is carried out with people who are distanced from the labour market, through our own in-house social workshop and as an SBB-recognised training company. Always supervised and within our ISO 9001 certified processes, so with the same quality control as all other work. Read more about our CSR story.

"We want a client to feel that we genuinely care about their products and handle them attentively, as if they were our own. Not a place where your inventory sits and that you pay for, but a partner that thinks along and treats your goods with care."

Biko Jongeneelen, COO at Service Pack

How we work with your inventory in practice

Outsourcing your inventory means placing your trust in someone. That is why we always start with your wishes: how do you want your inventory to be kept track of, what information do you need and how do you want to be kept informed? Based on that, we set up the collaboration. This is what you can expect from us:

• Checks on all incoming and outgoing goods. We consistently check what comes in and what goes out the door, so that quantities and quality are always correct.
• Damage is always reported. If something arrives damaged on receipt or in transit, we flag it immediately and record it. We take as many photos as possible, so you can see exactly what is going on.
• We raise problems together with a solution. If we run into something somewhere in the process, we report it clearly to you and come straight away with possible solutions. You do not have to untangle the problem yourself: you know your products are with specialists who think along.
• Our own software with insight into your inventory. We work with our own software that gives you as much insight as possible into what is on the shelves, what is moving and the status of your goods.
• One fixed point of contact. You get a dedicated contact person who is reachable by phone for questions about the processes. No changing faces or a general number, but someone who knows your situation.
• You are always welcome. Would you like to see with your own eyes how we work and where your inventory is kept? Clients are very welcome to come by.

On the transport side too, we can do more and more ourselves. These days we have a lot of our own transport, and where needed we bring in reliable partners we know well. That way we keep a grip on the whole chain, from incoming goods to delivery at your client.

Why 3PL is a logical step for us

Our driving force has always been the same: to take as much off our clients' hands as possible. Offering a 3PL is the complete picture of that. No longer a row of separate services that a client has to manage themselves, but one partner that carries the whole chain, from incoming container to delivered order. One point of contact, one process, from A to Z.

For us it goes beyond a place where your goods sit. We want you to feel that we are in it together, that we think along and that in us you have a strong partner, not just an address where your goods are kept and that you pay for. As a family business we do everything with great care, and client satisfaction is the most important thing of all to us. Fortunately we hear that back too: clients experience us as a pleasant partner to work with, notice that a lot is possible with us and know that we take good care of their products.

Honestly, we have been doing this for years. For a select number of clients we carry the full logistics, often without explicitly calling it a 3PL service. It was simply there, because they needed it and we could do it. What is changing now is that we are making this more widely available. Not because we are suddenly something new, but because we believe more companies should benefit from what we built up over thirty years.

Frequently asked questions about 3PL

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Over more than thirty years, Service Pack BV has grown from co-packer into a full 3PL. We provide storage, fulfillment, distribution and all value-added work from 45,000 m² in Etten-Leur, 30 minutes from Rotterdam and Antwerp. ISO 9001 and Skal certified, with no minimum volumes. One partner for your entire logistics.