Bubs Australia steps up to help alleviate the infant formula shortage in the U.S., drawing on software from SPS Commerce to manage its long-distance retail supply chain. 

Bubs Australia Ltd. has safely provided infant and toddler formula for more than 17 years, offering clean, organic nutrition free of chemicals and toxins. 

In 2021, the company introduced its U.S. label, Bubs Australia Toddler Formula, to a handful of retailers, including Walmart, Amazon and Thrive Market. Just one year later, the organization was presented with an opportunity to help the U.S. in the midst of the unfolding formula crisis taking place in 2022. 

During the shortage, families went to dozens of stores without finding any formula on the shelves, due to supply chain delays coupled with product recalls. In fact, parents were making their own formulas or paying steep prices online for fraudulent products in acts of desperation. 

Realizing that it had the products and capabilities to help alleviate the shortage, Bubs Australia became the first brand to submit an application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as part of the Operation Fly Formula program, an initiative set up to import into the U.S. infant formula that meets the country’s health and safety standards. 

After receiving FDA approval, the company announced a commitment to import 1.25 million cans of formula to U.S. retailers. However, demands from those retailers subsequently surged, creating a major logistical challenge for the company’s relatively small team. In July 2022 alone, Bubs Australia air-freighted 144 metric tons of its various products to California and Ohio. 

“We only had three people to process an influx of orders from 50 retailers throughout the U.S.,” says Kelly Phalen, product manager at Bubs Australia. “Plus, we needed to meet the complex requirements of each retailer, all at once, without adding resources to our team.” 

Bubs Australia ended up partnering with SPS Commerce, a vendor of cloud-based supply chain management software for retailers, “because we knew they had the retail expertise and technology to help us meet our goals.” Phalen says. 

She says Bubs Australia was committed to doing everything in its power to get more formula to the U.S. as soon as possible. The SPS Commerce Australia team understood the urgency of the situation, and quickly created new retail connections that allowed Bubs Australia to process orders without delay. In some cases, the team created new retail connections even as the formula was in transit to U.S. retailers. 

Read more: Full List of SupplyChainBrain's 100 Great Supply Chain Partners

Bubs Australia took advantage of SPS’s pre-existing connections with retailers, enabling it to receive orders and immediately comply with all retail requirements for the use of electronic data interchange (EDI) messaging. Integration between SPS Fulfillment and the company’s Unleashed ERP (enterprise resource planning) system automated order processing while minimizing data entry and errors. 

“We needed to process hundreds of orders every single day, so managing orders manually was not an option,” Phelan adds. “We relied on the SPS team to help us quickly onboard 50 new retail customers and automate order processing by integrating our ERP system with the SPS network.” 

Throughout the formula crisis, SPS spoke daily with Bubs Australia to keep the project on track. The team’s approach helped solve an immediate problem while setting Bubs Australia up for future success by receiving orders directly into its ERP system. 

“With SPS, there are no hold-ups or red tape, so we can quickly get our products from the warehouse to the shelf,” Phelan says. “The SPS team is professional, fun, effective and a pleasure to work with. Without their help, we would not have been able to get our formula to stores as fast as we did.” 

Resource Links:

Bubs Australia, https://spscommerce.com/

SPS Commerce Australia, https://www.spscommerce.com/au/