The sprawling UPS S.M.A.R.T Hub in Atlanta is akin to an industrial Santa’s workshop. As trucks arrive with deliveries, in lieu of elves, 18 miles of conveyor belt shuttle gifts, decorations and even food through the 1.2 million-square-foot processing facility, to be moved across the region, or even across the country.
On Wednesday, one such delivery was a truckload of Honey Baked Ham products.
About 80% of the Alpharetta-based food retailer’s e-commerce orders are placed during the holidays, Honey Baked Ham chief supply officer Greg Hundt said. That means hundreds of thousands of hams, turkeys and sides will move through UPS trucks, planes and processing facilities over the next five weeks to land at customers’ front doors just in time for their holiday dinner.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Over the course of a more than 30-year partnership between Honey Baked Ham and UPS, the two Atlanta companies have learned to start planning for the season months in advance. The stakes are high when a family’s holiday dinner is on the line.
“Getting things there on time if it’s part of a family meal, part of a holiday tradition, it’s critically important,” Hundt said.
Many of the Honey Baked Ham products passing through Atlanta’s UPS S.M.A.R.T Hub will move via UPS ground shipping around this region of the country, Hundt said. Others could be put on a plane depending on how well-stocked other U.S. regions are.
For the Honey Baked Ham team, holiday planning begins right after Easter, their third busiest holiday, Hundt said. In order for customers to enjoy their hams and turkeys safely, the package must arrive to a person’s doorstep 48 hours after its shipped. Any later and the food will no longer be safe for consumption and the Honey Baked Ham company will owe someone a new ham or bird. The nature of shipping a perishable product makes preplanning all the more important, Hundt said.
The food is shipped frozen, and after the two-day transportation period, it arrives still frozen or partially thawed on a customer’s doorstep.
Post-Easter preparations begin with “reading the tea leaves” on what the companies think the next holiday season will bring, Hundt said. UPS and Honey Baked Ham forecast a plan with a by month, by week and by day estimate of their e-commerce shipments for the coming season.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
This means considering what product demands will look like, Hundt said. Holiday spending for this year is projected to reach $902 per person on average, about $16 more than the previous 2019 record, according to the National Retail Federation. Of that per person average, $261 will include food, candy, decorations and other holiday items. It’s a trend Hundt said they’ve also noticed over the years as more people gift Honey Baked Ham to loved ones.
And with one less week between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, the preplanning is extra important, specifically when it comes to alerting customers of this shortened period and sending out reminders to buy their birds early. When customers wake up on Black Friday, the Honey Ham team will remind customers that they’re even closer to Christmas this year than usual, Hundt said. The earlier people order their spreads, the less strain it places on UPS and Honey Ham in those busy days leading up to the holidays.
“It’s in our interest to shape demand,” Hundt said.
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