From handcrafted paletas sold from a pushcart to the #1 Latin frozen novelty brand in the US, Tropicale Foods has stayed true to its Mexican heritage while building for growth. But as demand surged, their manual shipment tracking hit a wall.
Here’s how they solved it.
Tropicale Foods traces its roots to the 1940s Mexico where the paleta – a fruit-filled ice pop – became a summer favorite. Decades later, a Mexican family brought this tradition to California.
The small operation steadily grew into today’s leading Latin frozen treat. But as demand exploded, managing thousands of shipments with spreadsheets was no longer sustainable. It needed a smarter, scalable solution to monitor its growing distribution network.
Tropicale faced a problem: they knew that a Transportation Management System (TMS) could deliver big wins. But they didn’t have the in-house resources to get full value from the investment.
Hiring a full-time TMS expert wasn’t cost-effective, and finding part-time talent with the right expertise proved equally challenging.
Without the dedicated support for a TMS, they risked underutilizing their platform investment. That meant missing out on potential savings and efficiency gains.
Tropicale partnered with e2open’s Logistics as a Service (LaaS) team to bridge the resource gap without adding headcount. It brought on a shared Logistics Analyst who provides expert guidance to maximize the Transportation Management System without the cost of a full-time hire.
With LaaS support, Tropicale unlocked high-impact capabilities:
Shipment consolidation that simplified planning and cut costs
Performance-driven carrier scorecards to track metrics that matter the most
Real-time KPI visibility through Reporting as a Service (RaaS) dashboards
Automated and streamlined freight payments
Working with the LaaS team throughout implementation, Tropicale achieved a strong TMS adoption in the first year. They onboarded carrier partners, ran a successful RFP, unlocked cost savings, and upgraded performance reporting.
The result? One step closer to achieving operational resilience – without the overhead of additional staff.
Applications/services used
Transportation Management System (TMS)
Logistics as a Service (LaaS)
Reporting as a Service (RaaS)
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