Our Place
OTIF 88% to 97% | Stockouts 18% to 3%
The Situation
Our Place is a premium DTC cookware brand founded in 2019 and headquartered in Los Angeles. Known for the Always Pan, the Perfect Pot, and the Cast Iron Always Pan, their flagship product retails at $145. The brand positions heavily on aesthetics, cultural inclusivity, and sustainability.
The business operates a hybrid DTC and marketplace model. The primary channel is ourplace.com on Shopify, with a secondary channel on Amazon via an official brand store launched in 2022. Wholesale partners include Williams-Sonoma, Crate & Barrel, and Nordstrom. The company raised approximately $13.5M in a Series A round in 2021, led by Global Founders Capital. Products are manufactured in China (Guangdong and Zhejiang), with US fulfillment via a 3PL in Southern California and Amazon FBA.
When we engaged, revenue was scaling aggressively -- operations had not caught up. Marketing was driving demand, finance was reacting, operations was overwhelmed, with no system tying it together.
- Inventory scattered across SKUs with no prioritisation
- Long Asia lead times (8-10 weeks) with zero buffering logic
- High working capital locked in slow-moving SKUs
- Frequent stockouts on hero products
- OTIF sitting at approximately 88%
- Planning done manually, inconsistently, and too late
We exited cleanly after institutionalising systems and helping the brand build an internal team. The relationship arc ran from "fix this mess" at month zero, to "run operations" by month six, to "help us build an internal team" by month eighteen.
Our Role
Embedded supply chain operators. We owned end-to-end supply chain -- from raw data extraction to supplier management to S&OP cadence. Our mandate was to build the operational infrastructure the business was missing.
- Pulled raw data from Shopify, Amazon, and 3PL exports
- Rebuilt SKU-level demand history
- Called suppliers directly to validate actual lead times
- Ran weekly demand planning and reorder decisions
- Managed 3PL relationships and SLA enforcement
- Ran monthly S&OP with marketing and finance alignment
Engagement Phases
Phase 1 -- Control
0-90 Days- SKU rationalisation: cut approximately 22% of long-tail SKUs, redirected capital to top performers
- Emergency air freight on top SKUs to prevent revenue collapse
- Reallocated inventory across channels
- Introduced rolling 12-week demand plan and reorder triggers
Phase 2 -- Systemisation
3-12 Months- Built S&OP system: monthly demand planning plus weekly execution cadence
- Introduced ABC classification and service-level-based stocking
- Built safety stock logic tied to variability
- Supplier scorecards, MOQ renegotiations, dual-sourcing for top SKUs
- Container-level planning replacing reactive POs
- 3PL SLA enforcement
Phase 3 -- Scalable Growth
Year 2- Demand planning integrated with product launches
- Regional inventory positioning (US and EU split)
- Formal capacity planning with suppliers
- Pushed leadership to slow SKU expansion and deepen operational efficiency
Dealing with similar challenges?
If your supply chain can't keep up with your growth, let's talk about building the operational infrastructure you need.
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