1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144 
'REVERSING' OUT OF RECESSION
Page 38
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Among the many strings to the Widdowson Group's bow is the growing sector of reverse logistics.
Commercial director John Hawksworth says: "We've always been known as a transport company, but we're now growing into becoming a recognised logistics company and trying to diversify beyond transport and storage and into contract packing.
"We've currently got British Retail Consortium (BRC) accreditation. It's similar to other quality standards such as ISO, but it means our standards are recognised within the field of contract packaging."
He continues: "Reverse logistics is very much part of this process. We can take control of the return of a customer's product, whether that's part of a product recall, or just a matter of damaged goods, as well as reprocessing cardboard waste etc.
'We can also split loads and repackage product, depending on what the customer wants. It's another added value process for us. We're controlling collection of used and end-of-life products offering a full reprocessing service."
The reverse logistics service also makes it easier to provide genuine backloads for the group's vehicles, not least its delivery fleet. "In terms of our fleet, we've got 50 rigids on multi-drop, although it's very difficult to backload a rigid vehicle with anything more than one to two pallets. This [reverse logistics] is where we get wholesale use of a rigid truck and greater loading rates, too"