GLOBAL logistics provider, Kuehne + Nagel, has been awarded a long-term contract from the Spirit Pub Company to handle its food service supply chain for its estate of 800 managed pubs across the United Kingdom.
GLOBAL logistics provider, Kuehne + Nagel, has been awarded a long-term contract from the Spirit Pub Company to handle its food service supply chain for its estate of 800 managed pubs across the United Kingdom.
Launched just eight months ago, Spirit Pub owns and operates some of the fastest growing pub brands, such as Chef & Brewer, Fayre & Square, Taylor Walker and Flaming Grill.
Under the new agreement, Kuehne + Nagel said in a statement that it has implemented a solution that will provide a platform for "sustainable growth, improved communication and further collaboration between suppliers". A key enabler is a new IT system, which will provide visibility of menu sales and stocks to suppliers upstream, allowing for more accurate planning and forecasting.
The logistics firm will manage two regional distribution centres at Trafford Park, Manchester and Greenford, Greater London, on behalf of Spirit Pub. Offering a combined total warehousing space of 18,000 square metres, these centres will handle 1,200 fresh, frozen and ambient product lines, with stocked lines being picked and merged with just-in-time lines for onward delivery to the pubs.
The operation will run six days per week, typically making three deliveries each week to each pub via a national distribution fleet of 60 vehicles.
The Food Service sector is a strategic growth area for Kuehne + Nagel. In the United Kingdom, the company now runs three multi-temperature distribution centres, and carries out 105 food service deliveries per hour on a 24/seven basis.
John Hartley, Kuehne + Nagel's senior vice-president, sales & marketing for North-West Europe said, "With an increasing trend towards eating out, the third-party logistics model has become attractive to multiple restaurant operators."
