MELBOURNE
Upheaval in global supply chain networks over the past three years has triggered a fast-track expansion into the UK and soon to the US for Melbourne-based consultancy TMX.
The supply chain specialist, founded by Travis Erridge and Milan Andjelkovic in 2010, is currently assembling a team in the UK after securing department store group Marks & Spencer as a client.
Erridge, the CEO of TMX, tells Business News Australia that the company’s focus previously had been to expand in Asia where it is showing ‘steady growth and significant upside’.
However, demand from major clients around the world has led TMX to bring forward plans to move this year into the UK and US, markets that have always been on the company’s radar.
“(Marks & Spencer) had complex problems in terms of supply chains,” says Erridge, who was crowned Melbourne Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2018.
We worked heavily with their team to increase their business capabilities, efficiency and speed. It was not on our strategic plan to grow quickly in the UK as we were focused on Asia.
Since COVID, Erridge says TMX has recorded about 360 per cent growth in revenue, a move that was aided by a merger in 2021.
“That’s significant growth in terms of the work we are doing in Australia and New Zealand, but also in terms of the work we are doing in other parts of the world,” says Erridge.
TMX, he says, has been capitalising on a ‘hyper-acceleration’ of supply chain pressures in recent years due to a dramatic shift in consumer demand. E-commerce is especially putting pressure on ‘complicated and outdated infrastructure in Asia’.
Ten years of change in the space of 24 months has led to infrastructure for the most part being outdated. Every part of the world has a slightly different need.
Andjelkovic, the TMX Global COO, says the US and UK are now facing the same issues as Australia, namely cost of labour, scarcity of labour and inflationary pressures.
Having to create more efficient and resilient supply chains came to the fore in Australia quicker than other parts of the world.
TMX has appointed logistics industry veteran Gerry Power to head its new UK team.
"From Brexit to the pandemic, to the current challenges of the conflict in Ukraine, supply chains have been thrown into the spotlight and we’re seeing more organisations explore how they can ensure their operations are more robust, agile and flexible,” Power says.
While TMX is building its UK team, Erridge says the next cab off the rank is going to be the US, where it is expected to officially launch later this year.
“We actually picked up work for a bottler for a large soft drink supplier in the US which we are currently doing work with,” he says.
Founded in 2010 as TM Insight, TMX has expanded to include offices in Singapore, Vietnam, New Zealand, Thailand and Malaysia, as well as London.
The company rebranded as TMX in 2021 after acquiring Xact Solutions, a deal that doubled the size of the consultancy and allowed it to stake its claim as the largest independent supply chain and business transformation firm in the Asia-Pacific region.
TMX lists Coca-Cola Japan Bottlers Inc, UNIQLO, Australia Post, BMW, Asahi, and Australian supermarket giant Coles (ASX: COL) among its clients.
This article was written by Nick Nichols and originally published by Business News Australia on March 16, 2023.