Supply Chain

Radical overhaul needed for foodservice supply chain

06-Oct-2005 By Elaine Watson

The British Frozen Food Federation (BFFF) has commissioned new research to explore ways of reducing costs in the distribution leg between frozen food...

No hiding place

06-Oct-2005

It is interesting how few food manufacturers have a hard measure of the profits they really make from individual customers. An ambient food...

Time for supply chain quid pro quo

06-Sep-2005

Isn't it interesting how retailer-enforced changes in the supply chain are often better supported by suppliers than by the retailers' own staff!As...

Cool new approach to cut freight costs

06-Sep-2005 By Elaine Watson

While the industry is littered with the carcases of dot.coms that have bitten the dust, those that have proved they are more than a bunch of...

Suppliers bury hatchets and collaborate

10-Aug-2005

A clutch of food suppliers --some in direct competition with each other - are working together on a project designed to reduce empty running and...

Nestlé switches to vendor managed inventory with Tesco

10-Aug-2005 By Elaine Watson

Nestlé is switching to a vendor managed inventory (VMI) relationship with Tesco this year in a bid to improve availability.By shifting...

Transparency is the key to happiness

10-Aug-2005

I recently came across a bad example of a warehouse draft contract, which failed the two basic rules of 'fit for purpose' for relationships where the...

Wincanton both sides of the factory gate

30-Jun-2005

Factory gate pricing has proved a doubled-edged sword for Wincanton, hitting volumes going through its chilled consolidation centres on the one hand,...

Culina initiative slashes lead times to Northern Ireland

30-Jun-2005 By Elaine Watson

A clutch of blue chip manufacturers including Tropicana, Kraft and Kerrygold have slashed lead times and shipping costs for transporting goods to...

Beware those inflexible contracts

30-Jun-2005

I had a call the other day to be a 'marriage guidance' counsellor for a third party logistics provider (3PL) and a customer who had fallen out over...

Food goes radio ga ga

13-Jun-2005 By Elaine Watson

There is a business case for RFID tags on returnable assets, but the jury is still out when it comes to mass tagging of cases, says Elaine Watson

The true cost of our journeys

13-Jun-2005

It's roughly 1,000 miles from Northern Spain to the UK Midlands by road. That journey has a current commercial cost of around 70p per case for double...