Wincanton, one of the largest British logistics companies, has successfully delivered record peak volumes across the Grocery sector for 2017.
The company services all of the UK’s major Grocers, including ASDA, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Waitrose, Majestic Wines and many others. This means that Wincanton plays a crucial role in delivery of everything that the country needs at this time of year.
During the busy sector peak period in the run up to Christmas 2017, Wincanton’s Grocery operations, across all regions, handled record-breaking volumes of deliveries to ensure that supermarket shelves remained stocked and consumers enjoyed the Festive season.
The company’s London-focused collaborative warehouse, which serves a number of the UK’s best-known retailer customers across many sectors, dispatched over 10 million bottles during peak. This is the equivalent to three bottles per Greater London household.
In Northern Ireland, its largest site reported a record for single day volumes with the same site also as setting a new record for the number of deliveries in a single week
In the North East, one of Wincanton’s most significant warehouses facilitated a site record of over 3,000 grocery deliveries in a single week during peak period. As part of reaching this milestone, there was a record of just under 500 deliveries made in just a single day, that is roughly equivalent to one delivery every three minutes.
Wincanton’s Midlands Grocery location also enjoyed a record-breaking peak days handling volumes of over 330,000 spread across ambient and chill respectively.
The success of this period can be attributed to Wincanton’s high level of pre-peak planning with its customers, and the emphasis Wincanton places on collaboration. To facilitate the record-breaking volumes at many Grocery locations, Wincanton was able to scale-up operations including adding more staff, vehicles and warehousing space, for a number of major Grocery customers. Instead of outsourcing this short-term peak demand, at significant additional cost to the customer, Wincanton’s scale means that it is able to use its substantial nationwide network and wide customer base to find and release under-utilised assets.
Due to the variety of sectors and markets the company serves, from Construction and Defence through to Home & DIY, the company is able to draw on a portfolio of over 200 sites and more than 3,000 vehicles. This means Wincanton’s customers can access extra capacity within its own large network, when required.
Liam McElroy, MD Retail & Consumer, said: “I’m extremely proud of the work my colleagues in Grocery have done to ensure we deliver a successful peak for our customers. This is the most critical time for the sector and we know that any delay has the potential to be catastrophic within the retail environment. Our emphasis on collaboration and working as an integral part of our customer’s teams ensures that we enter peak periods with confidence.”
Peak periods also have the potential for a rise in health and safety incidents due to sharp increases in volume and temporary headcount. However, Wincanton ensures Health & Safety remains the number one operational priority and despite the poor weather over the period, Wincanton had an excellent month for Health and Safety performance.
