How OMHU built logistics that scale across 25 markets

OMHU is a Danish design company headquartered in Copenhagen, known for its modular TEDDY sofa. All products are made to order in Europe, primarily in Poland, with a smaller production site in the US. Goods are then shipped to over 40,000 customers across 25 European markets, the United States and soon Canada. This setup, with headquarters in Denmark, production in Poland and direct distribution to customers in dozens of countries, puts real pressure on logistics. OMHU needed to get a clear overview of every shipment right before scaling up further.

Victor Mandrup, Logistics Coordinator at OMHU, is responsible for bringing new freight partners on board. When OMHU opens a market in a new country, he finds the right carrier, makes the deal, and connects them with Cargoson to get the API integration running.

Before Cargoson: two carriers and a stack of Excel sheets

In the early days, OMHU had a simple setup involving two Danish carriers, and information was shared via Excel spreadsheets.

"It was simple, but also fragile and open to mistakes," Victor recalls. "A lot of double-checking was required, as well as a lot of manual work. We had to look up different truck lists and Excel sheets to ensure that all orders were sent through to the carriers and that everything was on the trucks."

This approach might work with one carrier and a small number of markets. It would not survive the scale OMHU was heading towards. "It would be totally impossible with our current setup, with all the different carriers and all the different markets," he says.

Why did a TMS come in alongside the ERP

The decision was less a nice-to-have and more a necessity. As OMHU prepared to expand, the company's first two steps were to implement an ERP system and Cargoson as its TMS, ensuring that the order flow was structured before new markets were added.

"It was crucial for us to get going," Victor explains. "Every time we open up to a new market with a new carrier, we reach out to Cargoson and ask them to handle the integration that connects the carrier's system to ours. Then we know everything will be set up the way we want it."

A fast onboarding, built on open communication

OMHU needed to act quickly, and the implementation matched that pace. Ülari Kalamees from Cargoson, who was involved in the rollout, describes it as a fast-paced project by design.

"It was clear from the very beginning that either it's going to be very fast and rapid, or it wouldn’t happen at all," he says.

Victor agrees.

"We were impressed with the back-end, the documentation, and the well-tested service. That's also why we chose Cargoson. The onboarding process was smooth, and Cargoson stuck to their implementation time promise, which was important to us."

The first live market was the Polish production hub, which distributes across Europe. The US followed, then Germany.

The cross-trade challenge

OMHU's structure created an unusual logistics problem. With the account owner based in Denmark, goods ship out from one country (Poland) and are sent to customers in other countries (like Finland, France, or the UK).

"In the beginning, we had to work out how to make it all work smoothly so that those cross-trade shipments would flow naturally without any problems," says Ülari. "It was an architectural challenge that needed to be fixed and done right from the very beginning."

One system used across logistics, customer service and production

Cargoson is more than just a logistics tool at OMHU. Around four people in logistics use it, as do five or six people in customer service and two people in the supply chain. It also reaches into production, where the production system connects to Cargoson via the API.

"It's so easy to use, even for non-technical people," Victor says. "Customer care use it to check orders, re-label orders or check the tracking status. Having all that information in one system makes collaboration easier because we all know where to find the information we need."

This shared view also helps when something goes wrong in production. “If there's an issue with a label that can't be printed due to a restriction, it shows up in Cargoson and production contacts us. We can then go directly into Cargoson, look up the order and see the error message.”

Getting full order information onto every label

The clearest example of what that overview does in practice is labelling. OMHU's Italian freight carrier originally produced labels that showed almost nothing beyond its own tracking number. When a full truck arrived containing dozens of orders, each comprising four boxes, it was impossible to see at a glance which boxes belonged to which order or what was inside them.

It took a long integration to change that. "We kept pushing through with Cargoson on our side, and in the end we succeeded," Victor says. "We changed the label from having almost no information on it to having everything: the order number, the customer address, and so on. We wouldn't have been able to do that without Cargoson."

Now, the warehouse can match every box to its order and ensure that full orders are shipped, not partial ones with missing boxes.

Tracking that customer service can follow without asking around

Another feature that the team relies on is tracking. Each shipment is linked from the ERP system to Cargoson and then directly to the carrier's own tracking page. This means that anyone can follow an order without having to chase it down.

"It's great that Cargoson has a direct tracking link," Victor says. "You find the order in Cargoson and can then go directly to the carrier's website to view it. The status is usually the same in Cargoson as well. Some carriers have trouble updating it, but then there's the link to their local site."

Quick, clear answers when it matters

When OMHU opened in the UK, it took on a small carrier with no experience of API integration. The Cargoson team, Victor and the carrier then held an online meeting to determine what each side needed. "Everything worked smoothly from there," he says.

The system simply runs on its own for the rest of the time. OMHU only reaches out for support once or twice a week on average, mostly when setting up a new carrier. When they do, the response is quick. "We get a clear answer and a fast response, usually the same day or the day after," Victor says. The answers are straightforward: "We'd rather be realistic and have good communication than be told something can be done when it can't." For Victor, that is the point. "It's really nice that it just works."

Who should consider Cargoson?

When asked who he would recommend it to, Victor doesn't limit it to big operations.

"Any company that needs a logistics setup involving multiple carriers and multiple services, and wants a clear overview. Even in a small market with a small number of orders, it's useful to have that overview from the outset. The number of mistakes that can be made with a simple manual setup just isn't worth it compared to using a TMS like Cargoson to keep everything in the right place."

The next market: Canada

OMHU continues to open new markets, each of which follows the same pattern: a new carrier and integration are set up before the market goes live. Canada is next, and the team is currently preparing that integration.

OMHU is one of 500+ manufacturers managing freight using Cargoson TMS. Want to see how it works with your carriers and shipment types? 

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