Soft drinks company Britvic has saved almost half a million road miles through streamlining its internal logistics and developing delivery partnerships with suppliers and customers.
The new scheme, supported by IGD, has also reduced Britvic’s environmental footprint by saving over 650 tonnes of CO2 in the company’s financial year 2007/8 compared to 2006/7.
Rob Richards, Head of Logistics at Britvic, said: “Through smarter planning, producing and forecasting we’ve reduced the movement of product around our internal distribution system and created even closer working relationships with some of our key suppliers and customers as well as other leading FMCG companies.”
Britvic’s logistics partner Wincanton now fills 93 per cent of the 45-strong fleet’s capacity through utilising any extra space with deliveries for other firms to maximise efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of Britvic’s supply chain. Current delivery partners include Heinz and Unilever.
Britvic is now looking at ways to pick up the majority of its own raw materials from suppliers as part of its existing logistics routes. Richards added: “We plan to pick up Britvic’s raw materials from suppliers en route to a depot pick-up or on the return from a customer delivery. By doing this we will continue to reduce our carbon footprint and make our logistics cleaner, greener and more responsive to our customers’ needs as well as making great cost-savings.”
Since 2000, Britvic has reduced its CO2 emissions by 23 per cent1. This new initiative follows recent reductions in Robinsons squash packaging which has saved over 350 tonnes of CO2 in 2007 as 25 per cent more cases can now be loaded onto pallets.
1 Per ton of product produced
