Unilever 99% shelf-ready by July as Cannock ramps up
More than eight out of 10 Unilever ambient food brands in the UK are now available in shelf-ready packaging (SRP).
Speaking at the official opening of the company's new £50M, automated ambient food distribution centre in Cannock, Unilever UK Foods chairman Kevin Havelock said: "We're at 85% now, but we're aiming for 99% of products moving through Cannock to be in SRP by July."
High volume, bulkier products including PG Tips were now available ready-stacked on dollies that could be wheeled straight on to the shop floor, he added.
He declined to comment on how much Unilever had spent on SRP, but said the cost had been largely offset through internal efficiencies in manufacturing and supply chain.
The purpose-built depot at Cannock, which replaces older distribution centres in Warrington, Peterborough and Worksop, has been developed to meet the needs of the business at least 10 years down the line, and was already delivering improved service levels to customers, claimed Havelock.
The 40,000m2 site, which is run by DHL Exel (warehousing) and Wincanton (transport), is able to run on just 200 staff, owing to the high levels of automation and a paperless goods receipt, picking and despatch system, he said. "We are basically future-proofing our business. There are 70,000 pallet spaces now, but space for 110,000 if we need them."
Currently, 10-15% of the pallets scanned on arrival at the depot needed some kind of manual handling or checking before being processed by the system and automatically sent on conveyors to be stored or immediately picked and despatched, said site operations manager Paul Mason. However, that figure was likely to improve significantly as the factories supplying the depot learned from regular feedback.
The large co-packing area upstairs was likely to generate strong growth in the future, as more and more customers demanded bespoke promotional or gift packs, he said.
