Jackson Jambalaya

 The wine might run dry at restaurants, the shelves might go empty at liquor stores, and the casinos might struggle to serve their customers but don't worry, the ABC Warehouse manager took the time to pat itself on the back for what it thinks is a job well done.  Don't believe it? Check out this letter Ruan Transport sent to ABC customers last week. 

Transcription of Letter

There has been considerable recent media coverage regarding Mississippi DOR’s alcohol distribution operations following challenges associated with the removal of the warehouse conveyor system. We want to share as many relevant facts as possible, and more importantly, continue our focus on resolving the difficulties you have faced.

Ruan Transport Corporation (Ruan) has been the operator of the warehouse since assuming operations in June 2023. Prior to Ruan assuming operations, the warehouse operated at an average fill rate of 87.7 percent, with a backlog of approximately 170,000 cases. The facility faced a range of operational challenges, including an aging conveyor system, staffing constraints, and lack of space to efficiently manage inventory levels. Orders often took two weeks to arrive.

Ruan assumed operations on June 19, 2023, under the oversight of Mississippi DOR. Initial efforts focused on improving safety conditions, restoring facility standards, managing equipment reliability, and strengthening staffing and morale. By the end of 2023, fill rates had improved to 93 percent and the backlog was reduced to normal operations (~30,000 cases). Throughout 2024 and 2025, Ruan and Mississippi DOR maintained a 99 percent fill rate and improved order shipping times to next-day service.

Mississippi DOR had also engaged Ruan in long-term planning to address aging infrastructure, including the obsolete conveyor system and software. The 211,000 square foot warehouse was constructed over 40 years ago, and its conveyor system had begun to consistently cause product damage and loss, along with unplanned operational downtime due to age-related breakdowns. Attempting to repair the conveyor system and update its software would have required significant downtime, with no assurance these actions would resolve the potential for catastrophic failure. Mississippi DOR needed a solution to avoid the risk of a complete system failure and the resulting order backlog it would create. Given this risk, Ruan and Mississippi DOR agreed to transition to a pick-to-pallet operating model (a model proven successful in other warehouses) and remove the unreliable conveyor system before any major failure might occur.

In preparation for the transition, which began January 13, 2026, Ruan began increasing staffing, reconfiguring the facility, and training team members. This transition required a temporary suspension of normal warehouse operations. We faced a trade-off decision between the downtime necessary to transition away from the obsolete conveyor system and the need to avoid the buildup of orders and case backlog. The selected shutdown window was intended to balance the need to complete the transition with the need to minimize order backlog.

Ruan, together with Mississippi DOR, deployed substantial additional resources to manage the transition to a pick-to-pallet process, including increased staffing levels, extended work hours, and additional daily shifts. Over the past eight weeks, shipping volumes have increased by nearly 20 percent compared to the same period in 2025, increasing from approximately 555,000 to 657,000 cases. We expect to consistently deliver at these levels until your delivery lead times and fill rates return to prior levels, which as of this communication is expected in the coming weeks.

Kingfish note: Who going to believe, corporate puffery or your own lyin' eyes? Check out these statistics gleaned from the ABC's website. 

Week/Cases Shipped/Cases Ordered/Difference

2/1/2026: 29,578 - 66,283 = -36,705

2/8/2026: 47,148 - 61,178 = -14,030

2/15/2026: 60,018 - 54,166 = 5,852

2/22/2026: 71,046 - 55,578 = 15,468

3/1/2026: 85,972 - 83,020 = 2,952

3/8/2026: 86,505 - 90,856 = -4,351

3/15/2026: 89,934 - 81,118 = 8,816

3/22/2026: 90,301 - 78,015 = 12,286

3/29/2026: 85,372 - 86,070 = -698

4/5/2026: 69,823 - 86,643 = -16,820

4/12/2026: 89,536 - 86,713 = 2,823

As you can see, the problem for Ruan is it is making little progress in reducing the backlog of cases at the warehouse for the last month.  It gained over 12,000 cases one week but then two weeks later orders outstripped shipments by nearly 17,000 cases.   Although, as Ruan bragged, the backlog has been reduced from the 220,000+ cases at the beginning of March, it has been stuck in the low 170's thousand range for the last four weeks.  The result is shipping times have only improved by two days during that period. ABC reported the cycle time two weeks ago at 17.6 days.   

There is one little item missing from the Ruan letter: the software disaster.  Funny how Ruan mentions nothing about the software problem that helped crater the system.  

Ruan installed a new warehouse management software system while it was shut down in January without any beta testing.  The result was a catastrophe as the software, Blueyonder, could not communicate with MARS, the ABC's ordering software system. Thus, an ABC customer would place an order in MARS, but then MARS wasn't transmitting the order to Blueyounder.  It took Ruan several weeks to fix the problem,  It was the software problem that was largely responsible for causing shipments to plummet to less than half of cases ordered in January.   

Funny how Ruan left that little bit out of its letter.   

One popular liquor store in Brookhaven posted this warning on its door. Nuff said.