Soya milk products manufacturer Alpro has turned to Culina Logistics to provide a complete primary logistics service in the UK. The integrated chilled food and drink supply chain specialist is handling all collections of stock from Alpro’s Belgian manufacturing facilities and a production site at Kettering in the UK through to order picking and distribution to retailers.
The shared-user, next-day service operates 24/7 to ensure product is accurately despatched to nearly 200 retailer and wholesaler regional distribution centres. Orders are received by electronic data interchange (EDI) and distributed by 450 deliveries each week.
Eight main product lines are stored at Culina’s Higher Heath distribution centre in Shropshire, with deliveries made by artics and, in central London, rigid vehicles.Weyfringe has produced a Flat Carton Labelling (FCL) System to automatically label cartons prior to erection and filling. The system includes a hopper feed and stacker unit allowing the labeller to run unattended and without interruption. Labels can be pre-printed or printed online and applied in the user’s preferred position. Variable information, ingredient lists and use/sell by dates can all be added as required and the system can operate with or without a PC attached. Large costs and logistical improvements can be realised by stocking generic plain cartons rather than many different pre-printed versions.
Oakland International has invested in a new WMS at its Redditch headquarters. The more versatile computerised system, covering order processing, inventory control and warehouse management, ensures that stock coming in and being despatched is managed speedily and accurately and provides accessible information which can be viewed via a virtual private network. Oakland, which had outgrown the existing system, spent £150,000 on the replacement, a tailored package supplied by Proteus Software. It has been introduced in the chilled department first.
