Walkers Crisps continues to power fleet with used cooking oil

In partnership with logistics provider Stobart, Walkers Crisps will now be transported from PepsiCo’s Leicester site to retailers using five million litres of hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) to fuel more than 11 million miles of UK HGV truck journeys across the remainder of this year.

It’s the latest in a string of sustainability initiatives from the manufacturer over the past two years. This included replacing diesel used in trucks traveling between the Quaker Oats mill in Cupar and Walkers Leicester with HVO, alongside routes between British farms and Leicester.​​

HVO powered

Low carbon HVO is now being used to power 40% of transportation across the Walkers supply chain, with PepsiCo’s total miles running on HVO fuel equating to 14 million this year.

Simon Devaney, sustainability director at PepsiCo UK & Ireland, said: “Scaling up our use of HVO-powered trucks to transport our Walkers crisps all over the country is a significant further step in our decarbonisation journey. ​

“By continuing to invest in green logistics initiatives with trusted partners we’re moving even closer to our goal of net zero by 2040.”​

Less emissions

Every kilometre powered by HVO generates 85% less GHG emissions when compared with conventional diesel, according to PepsiCo.

Stobart chief executive David Pickering added: “This important initiative will help Stobart and PepsiCo to jointly decarbonise their supply chain service by over 13,000 tonnes carbon this year alone. We’re now actively working on further initiatives with PepsiCo to continue to accelerate our decarbonisation journey.”​

Meanwhile, last year saw beverage giant Diageo partner with freight management firm Zeus as part of its new HVO fuel trials in the UK.​​

Under this new trial, Zeus will initially handle 50 trucks per week fuelled by HVO across 14 major UK transport routes, with plans to expand operations into Europe in early 2024.