Boughey Distribution has announced one of its biggest contract wins since the recent launch of its new state-of-the-art warehouse facility.

The Wardle-based logistics specialist has won a two-year contract with leading international food group, Associated British Foods (ABF).

ABF is a diversified international food, ingredients and retail group with sales of £6.8 billion and 85,000 employees in 43 countries. The major international manufacturer produces branded and private label grocery products, many of which are market-leading household names. Following the acquisition of Patak’s Foods last year ABF has brought their ethnic brands together under a single division known as AB World Foods which includes G Costa as well as Patak’s. 

The contract commences on 31st March and involves the storage and distribution for AB World Foods’ brands at the new £15 million Wardle storage development – G Costa (Blue Dragon, Maille mustards, French’s mustards and Tabasco sauces) and Patak’s.
 
Boughey has previously provided logistics solutions for Patak’s 300-strong product range and will now additionally store approximately 10,000 pallets of G Costa’s 800 product lines. The new total combined annual pallet throughput will be in excess of 140,000 pallets.
 
Paul Wildman, Supply Chain Director at AB World Foods said: “The logistics package that Boughey Distribution is able to deliver for these two brands will undoubtedly offer increased efficiencies and support the streamlining of these key brands’ UK logistics.”

G Costa manufactures a proportion of its products in Poland and imports a substantial volume from SE Asia, Continental Europe and the Americas. Until moving to Boughey, it operated its own warehouse in Aylesford, Kent and used a number of third party hauliers on a regional basis throughout the UK. Boughey’s 140-strong fleet will now deliver to the brand’s complete UK distribution network and service all the major retailers, including Tesco, Asda and J Sainsbury.

Keith Forster, MD at Boughey Distribution, added: “Delivering daily to all the major retailers enables us to develop and invest in leading consolidation programmes which save our customers time and money. This new contract is testament to how well our dedicated staff and service have supported Patak’s UK distribution over the past 2 years. Now with the additional G Costa brands we can strengthen the offering and efficiencies for ABF even further.”

A significant proportion of G Costa’s throughput (15%) is exported to a variety of countries in Europe and further afield; Boughey’s tailor-made logistics service will also incorporate a large stickering operation within its co packing facility to facilitate the sale of products via multilingual labelling.

Forster concludes: “We provide the ultimate tailor-made logistics package for all our clients, whatever their size, and pride ourselves on our dedicated approach to customer service. Our unique expertise enables us to offer truly seamless solutions.”

This will be one of the most important years for local Wardle-based Boughey Distribution, a pioneering player in the UK’s ambient grocery distribution and storage sector.

The distribution division of NWF Group plc has opened the doors to its brand new £15 million storage facility and staff recently celebrated moving into their new head offices.

The investment made by the leading local employer doubles the distribution company’s storage capacity and is creating over 250 new jobs for the area, including clerical, technical, management and warehousing roles. Boughey currently employs over 600 people at its Wardle and Deeside sites and invests heavily in supporting the local workforce.

Keith Forster, MD of Boughey Distribution, describes the new development as a key milestone for the company and adds that investing in the right people is crucial: “We provide the ultimate tailor made logistics package for all our clients, whatever their size, and the important investments we make in advancing our facilities and developing our staff ensures we continue to deliver above and beyond our customers’ expectations.

“We pride ourselves on our dedicated approach to developing our people and invest heavily in training and staff performance.”

In the past year alone, Boughey has invested over £1 million in developing personnel development programmes, staff facilities, driver training and recruitment.

Forster concludes: “Investing in new people, technologies and initiatives is key to Boughey’s success and we are proud of the company’s achievement to date.”

The company previously doubled its storage facility five years ago and has since increased its turnover from £8.5 million to £27.5 million, this new £15 million storage development is expected to further increase the company’s turnover to over £40 million this year.

Achieving on-time deliveries is crucial for a successful business and progressive, high-volume biscuit manufacturer Hill Biscuits knew that it needed the right logistics supplier to improve its record in this area. As one of the UK’s leading ambient grocery distribution and storage companies, Boughey Distribution Ltd was glad to step up to the mark to help Hill Biscuits put its logistics back on track.
Based in Ashton-under-Lyne just outside Manchester, Hill Biscuits supplies many major retailers, discount stores and the wholesale/cash and carry trade, as well as exporting its products around the world and contract manufacturing for other companies. Needing a logistics supplier who could provide a better, more professional customer service to move the business closer to its target of consistent on-time deliveries, Hill Biscuits looked at Boughey Distribution before comparing its services to a couple of other companies. Having researched the services on offer and already knowing some of Boughey’s other clients, Hill Biscuits went back to Boughey on recommendation.
Said Hill Biscuits’ Managing Director Steven Wetherby, “On-time deliveries and good consolidation were the key factors for us. We always need storage for around 1000 pallets at a time and deliveries are generally straightforward full pallet loads, although there is a very small number of mixed pallet deliveries. However, delivery size can vary from a few pallets to a full load, and we wanted to get as close to on-time delivery as possible whatever the load. After a settling-in period, communications are well-established and we are achieving good delivery times.”
Said Keith Forster, Boughey’s MD, “We are pleased to be able to offer Hill Biscuits with a cost-efficient, superior service. Since the switch over, we have been able to improve delivery times considerably, which proves that value for money and quality of service can be mutually compatible with the right distributor.”

Following Boughey Distribution’s fresh new branding, the majority of it’s vehicle fleet has now received a fresh, new makeover in time for the new year.

The new look continues the Company’s blue colour scheme, with a fresh treatment to communicate a totally modern fleet image, including a distinctive update for the Company’s 20 year old logo, to help achieve high recognition on the road.
Keith Forster, Boughey Managing Director, said, “Our old livery had been with us for about 20 years. We have grown significantly over the years, so we thought it was time to reflect the dynamic attitude and success of the business.”
Boughey Distribution is one of the UK’s leading ambient grocery distribution and storage companies. The company previously doubled its storage facility five years ago and has since increased its turnover from £8.5 million to £27.5 million, a new £15 million storage development will be officially launched in 2008 and is expected to further increase the company’s turnover to over £45 million in the same year.

In addition to the new vehicle livery, Boughey has introduced stunning new branded trailers for several key clients, including Napolina and Typhoo.
Typhoo Tea was a new client for Boughey Distribution in 2007, the company stores approximately 7,000 pallets at its North Wales-based Deeside site and handles over 90,000 pallets throughput annually. Later in the year, Boughey took over the storage and handling of Typhoo’s raw tea which is now stored at the company’s Cheshire facility in Wardle. The raw tea contract comprises of the intake of sacks of raw tea from a number of tea-growing countries around the world before feeding into Typhoo’s factory at Moreton on a call off selected by the blenders at Typhoo.

Boughey Distribution Ltd, one of the UK’s leading distribution and storage companies, has been appointed to handle, store and deliver luggage for Deeset Travelways as part of ASDA’s supply chain.

Boughey can store 700 pallets of luggage for Deeset at any one time and sends full loads of the suitcases to ASDA’s Wakefield depot, one of the company’s 20 distribution centres. When Deeset delivers the luggage to Boughey on containers the cases are nested, with a medium and a small case inside each large case. Before the luggage can be dispatched on individual pallets, Boughey first denests the two smaller cases and stores them separately. As a result, three times as much storage space is required once denesting has taken place.

Said Keith Forster, Managing Director of Boughey, “This operation involves quite an amount of floor space and getting the timing right is really important. We manage this by keeping about a week’s stock denested in order not to cause any timing issues on dispatch.”

Said Eamonn Byrne, Business Development Manager for Deeset, “We are primarily using Boughey because of the synergy we have with them. We have an established relationship with ASDA and Deeset and Boughey were already involved with ASDA’s petcare products, so both companies are ASDA specialists. As we are a micro-pick operation, working with Boughey on ASDA’s luggage distribution has been a good coming together.”

The logistics solution provided applies lean principles to transform retail supply chains from push to pull, significantly reducing inventory levels and lead times. Offering robust, seamless, highly transparent and above all, cost effective solutions, it provides a dedicated “direct to store” next day delivery service supporting all ASDA stores as well as supporting deliveries to all other retailers’ distribution centres.
ASDA is part of the Wal-Mart group and currently has 340 stores with five distinct model formats: ASDA Wal-Mart Supercentre, ASDA Supermarket, ASDA Living, George High Street and ASDA Essentials.