How boughey’s unique relationship with a sales agency shows logistics can be an indispensable part of the ‘marketing mix’.

Think of logistics and you think of a process with manufacturers and distributors at one end, retailers and consumers at the other… and in the middle, the trailers and warehouses that can handle the volumes that make it all possible. But as Boughey and Product Chain are demonstrating, there is another way.

Product Chain is a sales agency that specialises in bringing new, innovative brands to the mainstream consumer market.

By their very nature, such brands often have limited financial resources and limited access to the services that are essential for sustained success in the fast moving FMCG environment.

Product Chain’s solution? Instead of thinking bigger than your established competitors, think smarter.

Nowhere is that approach more apparent than in its choice of distribution provider for its client brands.

When initial monthly volumes may have amounted to 20 - 30 pallets, Boughey’s consolidated services helped brands such as Real Foods and, more recently, New Zealand Honey Specialities Ltd, establish a foothold in the competitive UK market.

In the case of NZ Honey, that foothold has turned into a presence in over 1,000 UK stores in under two years. And all against a backdrop of falling honey prices and the best efforts of the bee-killing varroa mite to decimate the industry worldwide.

‘Our relationship with Product Chain goes back some five years,’ comments Boughey MD Keith Forster.’ It works for us because our consolidated model is perfectly suited to smaller volume producers who couldn’t otherwise afford the facilities, schedules and drop frequency we offer. And it works for Product Chain because they can be confident their clients are receiving good customer service levels.

‘There’s no commercial relationship between us, just an arrangement that benefits everybody concerned. Product Chain customers deal direct with Boughey and enjoy all the cost advantages that come with it.’

Many of the products Boughey handle on behalf of Product Chain offer organic alternatives to mainstream brands. The manufacturers of those products expect that integrity to be maintained throughout the supply chain, and here Boughey’s organic warehousing and distribution status has been a more than significant factor in their continued relationship with Product Chain.

So as unusual as it may seem for a distribution company to be partnering a sales agency, you can be sure that whatever the next challenger brand Product Chain brings to market, it will be Boughey trailers delivering it to the stores.

From 5 a day to £4m per year: The amazing success story of ella’s kitchen, the latest customer to benefit from boughey’s  consolidated business model.

Just two years ago, Paul Lindley was wondering if giving up a successful career to start a business - literally from his kitchen table – was the right decision.  However, the decision has paid off and he’s now heading up a £4m business as well as being central to changing  kids eating habits in the UK.

With their fun and funky packaging, Ella’s Kitchen Smoothie Fruits, baby food and pasta sauces have achieved the impossible by making organic, additive free fruit and vegetables  ‘cool’ with a whole generation of kids.

Behind the colourful squishy, squeezy pouches, though, there’s a serious agenda: “Around 30 per cent of children in the UK are medically overweight and many kids just don’t get exposed to healthy, nutritious food.  As a father of two, I was keen to try to make some changes”, says founder Paul.

The fact that he knew little or nothing about food manufacturing didn’t deter him; working closely with kids to identify what they wanted to eat – as well as with nutritionists to identify what they should be eating, he was able to launch with two fruit smoothies that were as tasty as they were healthy.

What he did know was that securing listing with the UK’s most important multiples meant working with a distribution partner that understood the dynamics of the FMCG supply chain from start to finish.

“Boughey showed us how a consolidated warehousing and distribution model would allow us to service our retail customers, whatever the demand”, commented Paul. “Their scaleable logistics solution gives us real value for money and a reach that would otherwise be way beyond our means.”

The fact that a brand still managed from the Lindley family’s home is now available in 350 Sainsbury stores and at Tesco and Waitrose vindicates Paul’s decision to go with the UK’s leading ambient grocery logistics provider. As Boughey Managing Director Keith Forster observes:

“With around 500 pallets typically held at our Deeside depot, Ella’s Kitchen is by no means our largest customer. But its nationwide success shows that even without the throughput of the bigger brands, we can still offer a warehousing and distribution solution that allows them to compete at the very highest level. That’s the beauty of consolidation.”