ACS&T Logistics, the UK’s leading provider of frozen-food transport and storage, is about to extend its successful 3663 national frozen consolidation service to a second centre at its depot in Wolverhampton. As a result, many more suppliers of frozen food could benefit from the scheme, which offers case-level consolidated distribution to each of 3663’s 32 depots. This provides suppliers with an efficient route-to-market by allowing them to pay by the case, rather than by the pallet, for delivery of their stock. The new centre is available for use from the 1st June 2008.
ACS&T Logistics has operated the scheme for 3663 since 1994 from its depot in Grimsby and currently includes over 110 suppliers and 1500 different product lines. By opening a second centre in a more central location, ACS&T Logistics and 3663 hope to attract more members into the scheme. The benefits to 3663 suppliers in using the consolidation service are many and varied, as Carl Robinson, Sales and Commercial Director of ACS&T Logistics, explains:
“Our key objective is to simplify the process for frozen food manufacturers to be able to supply 3663 efficiently. Suppliers need only to deliver their stock to one of our centres, or we can collect it for them, and we will do the rest, saving suppliers time, money, administrative effort and road miles; helping to reduce the carbon footprint of all involved. We will store their product until a 3663 depot requests it and then deliver, with products from other suppliers, on consolidated pallets. This allows us to offer a very attractive supply chain solution for case deliveries, which could not be achieved in any other way.”
He continued…. “But the benefits of the service don’t end there. Our leading edge on-line stock management system enables suppliers to view the status of their stock in our cold store in real time. They can check the status of deliveries into our store and orders raised by 3663 for delivery to their depots. They will receive automatic email alerts should stocks fall below agreed levels.
As a commitment to the success of the scheme, we have appointed a new Supplier Service Co-ordinator dedicated to work with 3663 and its suppliers to ensure that they get the most out of our system. In short, everything is geared towards supporting 3663 suppliers and working with them to avoid costly shortages.”
Jim Gouldie, Head of Supply Chain at 3663 First for Foodservice said… “ACS&T’s National Consolidation Scheme for frozen food products is tried and tested, with clear benefits for all parties. The IT system is superb since it gives instant access to up to the minute information regarding stock levels and deliveries. It plays a critical part in ensuring that we can always offer a full range of our products to our customers throughout the UK. This is of course vital because if products are available, they can be sold. We have worked with ACS&T for many years and trust them implicitly with our frozen food distribution work. We welcome the extension of the service to Wolverhampton, and look forward to discussing supply to 3663 with our suppliers.”
Suppliers using the 3663 First for Foodservice national frozen consolidation scheme will also be able to benefit from a range of value added services offered by three new ACS&T divisions, covering temperature controlled services, production support and co-packing. Consolidation service members may be particularly interested in ACS&T’s BRC approved packing facilities at Wolverhampton together with its blast freezing, tempering and manufacturing support services.
ACS&T’s services are provided from four centres: Grimsby (Headquarters) Wolverhampton, Tewkesbury and Scarborough. The business currently operates 14 cold stores, 2 ambient stores, extensive co-packing facilities and large, dedicated and shared-user multi-temp transport fleets. ACS&T Logistics is a wholly owned subsidiary of Camellia plc. Camellia is an international investment company with a long-term outlook on each of its trading companies. The turnover of the group is £160M, and it employs 75,000 people in 15 companies. Forty per cent of the group’s revenue is generated from UK operations. In addition to food storage and distribution, Camellia operates in engineering, agriculture, banking and pharmaceuticals. The company is also the world’s largest independent tea producer.
ACS&T Logistics
Sara Olivant
Tel 01472 358207
Email: sales@acst.co.uk
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