Princes
Six years ago Princes Foods re-evaluated their supply chain strategy, the culmination of which led to a change of strategy as Princes entered the realm of grocery consolidation. Following a competitive tender Boughey Distribution became Princes chosen logistics partner and over the years the relationship has been enhanced and developed, to meet the ever-changing demands of the retail grocery sector.
Initially, a local distributor handled Princes’ retail business and although Princes was a large supplier, there were no real benefits being offered. Boughey was able to provide very substantial cost reductions by combining 20,000 pallets of Princes stock with 20,000 of other consolidated work. Boughey improved on order lead times and offered a more responsive service that all but guaranteed 100% of deliveries could be made within lead-time.
Boughey’s challenge involved moving 20,000 pallets of Princes’ stock, recruitment of 100 employees, integrating Princes’ IT systems (SAP) and Boughey’s load building and management software, maintaining outbound deliveries and learning the characteristics of 2000 new product lines. Extensive planning was required to ensure a smooth transition and sleepless nights were spent by all involved to ensure tight deadlines were observed.
Boughey was challenged further with staff from the existing provider, which fell under the TUPE regulations, being transferred to Boughey. Although this late move would help with product familiarisation it presented considerable challenges to quickly integrate new employees and agree employment contracts and reporting structures.
The stock transition yielded a considerable amount of product that required re-working. The presence of Boughey’s on site contract packing operation made short work of this problem and ensured all stock was in perfect condition. Within three months of commencing the contract, service levels were exceeding those delivered by the original provider and system improvements were already starting to show real benefits. Thereafter numerous effective enhancements to the working relationship followed as Boughey aligned many key staff with relevant counterparts at Princes.
More recently Boughey has added a port clearance service with shipping containers being collected for Princes, processed by Boughey and returned to the port. This procedure has allowed Princes to make savings on inbound costs as responsibility and control has been delegated to Boughey. Princes has its quality control laboratory on the Wardle site and this allows a close relationship to develop between goods inward and the technicians. Therefore quality issues can be addressed on the spot and, where possible, corrected immediately.
Princes overall storage levels now exceed 30,000 pallets with more and more stock arriving as new business is acquired and developed.
This growth has helped to fuel Boughey’s recent expansion and, with another 60,000 pallet spaces under construction at the main Wardle site, will allow Princes and others to benefit fully from consolidation and ensure retailers’ high service expectations continue to be delivered.
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