Grace Foods, which produces a range of Caribbean, Oriental and Tex/Mex food and drink products, has extended its transport and distribution contract with Jigsaw.
The Welwyn Garden City company produces brands including Nurishment, Encona, Grace, Dunn’s River and Silk Road.
The profile of its customer base means it needs to deliver consignments ranging from full 26-pallet loads to large supermarkets through to single pallets to smaller stockists and market stall holders, many of whom are located in city centres.
Jigsaw uses the services of its ten partner hauliers in a radial trunk-to-hub model. Full loads are collected from Grace’s central warehouse in Welwyn Garden City and transported to regional depots operated by Jigsaw’s partner hauliers.
Loads are then cross docked for onward delivery to major retailers’ distribution centres or loaded onto specialist vehicles for final delivery to local retailers and other stockists.
Each partner haulier undertakes transport and distribution in its own region, where it has knowledge and expertise, and this allows Jigsaw to create an integrated national contract with local services configured to meet specific operational requirements.
Jigsaw started working with Grace in 2009 when the food producer outsourced its transport services for the first time.
“This contract clearly demonstrates the benefits of our network model and its ability to meet Grace Foods’ evolving requirement,” said Jigsaw managing director Andy Humpherson. “From a business point of view it’s an important step in our development that customers such as Grace Foods are choosing to stay and grow with us.”
