The number of containers being transported by rail through the Port of Felixstowe has reached an all-time high. A weekly total of 7,006-plus containers was handled for the first time ever towards the end of April 2004, breaking the previous record set in December last year by 330 units.
The Port of Felixstowe saw the launch of number of new rail services towards the end of last year, including Freightliner’s Felixstowe to Daventry route, and GB Railfreight’s service from the Port to Hams Hall.
There are a total of 22 inbound and 21 outbound trains per day from the Port of Felixstowe’s North and South Rail terminals linking the port to Coatbridge (Glasgow), Trafford Park (Manchester), Liverpool, Leeds, Cleveland, Birmingham, Cardiff, Tilbury, Doncaster, Selby, Widnes, Hams Hall, and Daventry. The Port also handles two forest products trains per day at its dedicated paper-handling rail terminal.
Walkers Snack Foods’ IMI supply chain suite has been upgraded to include the latest releases of IMI Order, IMI Warehouse and IMI Collaboration software. The development enables Walkers to move closer to its customers with best practices for accommodating their diverse needs and improving information availability within its customer service operations. Having an integrated order fulfilment solution, allows Walkers to implement its software in phases while gaining immediate benefits from consolidated operations, improved information management, and maximised visibility into our supply chain operations.
UK retail John Lewis has chosen Paragon to provide it with software for operational routeing as well as generating daily plans for vehicles making deliveries from five distribution centres to all its shops nationwide. Handling up to 800 deliveries a week, the Paragon software provides John Lewis with a solution that overcomes long-standing problems and supports business growth while at the same time improving overall efficiency by 8%.
Reader’s Digest is using Vertis Europe, the European arm of Vertis, which provides targeted advertising, media, and marketing services, for a further three years. The multimillion pound deal entails Vertis sending out Reader’s Digest’s promotion mailing, products and parcels. The parcels, to include the full Reader’s Digest product range of books, CDs, videos, DVDs and other catalogue items, will be despatched using semi-automated packing machinery and a range of service delivery levels, including same-day despatch. Vertis’ fulfilment site will store between 3,500 and 5,000 pallets of product and material from Reader’s Digest.
Olive oils producer Lesieur Oils has renewed its contract with one-way trip pallet pool service LPR for a further three years at an additional three sites in France as well as elsewhere in Europe. LPR will handle 540,000 movements of pallets a year at Lesieur’s production facilities in Aix-en-Provence, Coudekerque and Bordeaux. It will also be responsible for Lesieur distribution across the UK, Italy and the Benelux countries.
Materials handling solution provider Yale has announced its global registration to the ISO 9001:2000 quality standard. The disciplines required to achieve ISO 9001:2000 involve standardising on a global basis the business processes that provide significant value to Yale customers, suppliers and employees. Ultimately it is the customer who benefits from the achievement of this award, says Mike Rowlett, Yale’s managing director. “First and foremost our goal was to achieve global customer satisfaction in everything we do.”
LDV, the light commercial vehicle manufacturer, is taking delivery of nearly 70 Toyota products. The order is with M&W Toyota Handling and comprises 33 forklifts, a mix of compact 7FGCU30s, standard chassis 7FGF25s and 6FBRE 14 reach trucks. Thirty-four pre-owned machines, including a mix of forklifts, power pallet trucks and two tractors, were also supplied.
PD Ports has a new agreement with TTS to re-establish regular liner sailings between the Baltic and the Port of Howden, together with an improved distribution function that will ensure the continuation of regular timber importing from the Baltic States into the UK. The new deal follows the collapse of Baltic Forest Line earlier this year – and subsequently the cessation of trading of Baltic Forest Line’s distribution arm, Forestwood ? breaking a supply chain that delivered a significant amount of timber into the UK market.
Rushlift UK, a specialist in the hire of forklift trucks and other mechanical handling equipment, has bought the complementary business of Lex Komatsu South (LKS) from the RAC for an undisclosed sum. LKS, based in Heathrow, operates mainly in the South. Combined with Rushlift UK’s existing northern presence, the increased footprint now allows the group to compete effectively for national accounts.
KK Fine Foods, a leading manufacturer of frozen convenience foods, is using Ross System’s iRenaissance suite as its enterprise technology to support its UK warehousing, planning and manufacturing operations. The iRenaissance solution will provide increased management reporting, and help KK Fine Foods to conform to the forthcoming EU traceability legislation coming into effect from January 2005.
Nationwide pallet distribution network Pallet-Track has invested £100,000 in five Jungheinrich TFG25BS gas-powered forklifts for its hub operation. The 2,500kg capacity forklifts each feature fork positioning attachments. Jungheinrich suggested the TFG25BS model because it features a Hydrostatic Drive option which is ideally suited to the short intense runs that it would be making at Pallet-Track’s distribution centre in Wednesbury.
