Pandora: Scaling global growth with a configurable, next-gen WMS

Pandora is the world’s largest jewelry brand by volume, with a growing global presence and a rapidly expanding direct-to-consumer business. In recent years, the company has evolved beyond its heritage as a charms-focused brand into a full jewelry house, including newer categories such as lab-grown diamonds.

This transformation, driven by its Phoenix growth strategy, has been supported by a largely owned, end-to-end supply chain. Pandora manufactures the majority of its products in Thailand and operates key distribution centers across Europe, Asia, and North America, including a major US hub in Baltimore. Alongside growth, the company has also prioritized sustainability, incorporating recycled materials and improving operational efficiency to reduce waste across its value chain.

As its product portfolio, channels, and global footprint expanded, so did the complexity of its supply chain operations.

The challenge: Scaling warehouse operation for a more complex, omnichannel business

Pandora's rapid growth and increasing operational complexity exposed the limitations of its existing warehouse management capabilities. The company needed to modernize warehouse execution as part of a broader transformation that also included ERP (SAP S/4HANA), transportation management, and global visibility platforms.

Key challenges included:

• Managing higher volumes across a multi-node, global distribution network
• Supporting increasingly complex fulfillment flows across retail, e-commerce, wholesale, and B2B channels
• Improving real-time visibility into inventory and operations
• Enhancing allocation decisions to better align with demand and partner commitments
• Maintaining consistent service levels during peak periods

Incremental system upgrades were no longer sufficient. Pandora required a scalable, flexible WMS platform that could support its unique, vertically integrated operating model while enabling long-term growth.

Why Hardis: Flexibility, configurability, and a true partnership approach

After a comprehensive evaluation of leading WMS providers, Pandora selected Hardis Supply Chain as its strategic partner. While large enterprise vendors were considered, Pandora ultimately prioritized flexibility and collaboration over rigid, out-of-the-box solutions.

Hardis stood out for several reasons:

• Configurability for a unique value chain: Pandora’s ownership of its supply chain, from manufacturing through distribution to retail, requires workflows that standard WMS platforms often struggle to support. Hardis provided the ability to configure processes without creating a heavily customized, difficult-to-maintain system.
• Support for complex, multi-flow distribution: The solution enables simultaneous inbound flows from manufacturing and outbound fulfillment to stores, e-commerce customers, franchise partners, and wholesalers.
• Real-time visibility and decision-making: Configurable dashboards and reporting tools deliver end-to-end insight into inventory, throughput, and performance, enabling faster, data-driven decisions.
• Seamless integration with enterprise systems: The WMS aligns closely with Pandora’s SAP S/4HANA ERP and transportation management system, ensuring coordinated execution across the supply chain.
• User-friendly design: An intuitive interface improves adoption and productivity for warehouse teams, an important factor in day-to-day operations.
• A collaborative “One Team” model: Hardis worked closely with Pandora teams throughout design, testing, and deployment, translating business requirements into practical, high-performing solutions.

Equally important was Hardis’ partner-first approach, with a willingness to adapt the system to Pandora’s needs rather than forcing the business into predefined workflows.

Results: Improved stability, visibility, and peak performance

Pandora implemented the Hardis WMS through a phased rollout, beginning with distribution centers in Europe and Thailand. The Thailand deployment, in particular, represented a highly complex transformation, combining WMS implementation alongside ERP and TMS upgrades.

Despite going live shortly before peak season, the system delivered strong performance improvements early on:

• Reduced operational disruptions: High-severity system incidents decreased by approximately 50 percent compared to previous benchmarks
• Improved system stability: Faster incident containment and stronger adherence to service-level agreements
• Enhanced inventory visibility: Real-time transparency supports more accurate allocation and fulfillment decisions
• High-volume scalability: The platform supports daily throughput of approximately 187,000 units, scaling up to 666,000 during peak periods
• Stronger fulfillment execution: Improved reliability in meeting partner commitments and customer demand

These improvements have enabled Pandora to better balance supply and demand, reduce excess inventory, and ensure consistent service levels, even during periods of high volume and ongoing transformation.

The future: Expanding in North America and building long-term resilience

With successful deployments in Europe and Asia, Pandora is now preparing to extend the WMS rollout to North America, including its Baltimore distribution center, its most significant commercial hub. This next phase, planned for 2026, will further standardize operations across regions and support continued growth in the US market.

Looking ahead, Pandora’s investment in a configurable, scalable warehouse platform positions the company to better navigate increasing complexity, support omnichannel expansion, and respond more dynamically to changing demand. By combining modern supply chain technology with a collaborative implementation approach, Pandora is building a resilient, future-ready operation capable of delivering the right product to the right place at the right time, at global scale.