OrderGrid sets up Safe Direct MS in its Toronto warehouse to meet booming COVID-19 PPE demands

Safe Direct MS needed immediate help to meet booming medical supply demands during the COVID-19 pandemic

Safe Direct MS is one of the largest medical supply companies in Canada and specializes in personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Safe Direct urgently needed to find a reliable fulfillment partner that could meet their growing needs in order volume due to PPE demands required by individuals, nursing homes, hospitals - and just about everyone. Safe Direct was importing thousands of pallets per week, as their business model was focused on cutting our middleman and selling DTC (direct-to-consumer) and direct-to-business.

Safe Direct's increasing needs to more warehouse and fulfillment capacity, without sacrificing quality assurance given the stringent Health Canada requirements at the time brought them to OrderGrid. They required a 3PL partner that could handle and track high volume inventory, manage large receivings, high-volume orders, and have LOT code traceability in the case of a recall.

OrderGrid set Safe Direct up in its Toronto warehouse in days

OrderGrid has experience working with DTC companies across a diverse range of industries. To meet Safe Direct’s needs specifically, OrderGrid drew on the experience of one of its founders, Kris Calder, who has launched CPG products in the North American pharmaceutical market before.

To help Safe Direct distribute PPE supplies across Canada, OrderGrid quickly helped set up them up in the OrderGrid Toronto warehouse. Within days, Safe Direct had shipped over 100,000 N95 respirators, tens of thousands of gowns and hand sanitizer out of the the OrderGrid warehouse. Supplies were immediately distributed nationwide, contributing to Canada’s COVID-19 response and helping Safe Direct’s business grow and scale in response.

OrderGrid Toronto enabled Safe Direct to:

• Store PPE products in its 100,000-square-foot warehouse, which had enough space to hold hundreds of pallets
• Check the quality of their products through OrderGrid's in-house quality assurance team
• Track each product according to LOT codes and expiry dates, down to the end customer
• Fulfill orders for DTC, B2B, and other special projects to individuals, hospitals, dental clinics and more

Safe Direct MS established itself as one of Canada’s leading medical supply companies

OrderGrid’s immediate response to Safe Direct MS allowed the company to position itself as a mainstay in the Canadian medical supply industry.

With the help of OrderGrid Toronto, Safe Direct MS has distributed:

• 10 million masks
• 4 million gowns
• Tens of Thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer & face shields