SWEET TALK
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• Having an in-house transport operation allows you to be more responsive to your customers' needs, insists Chris Kent. logistics director at Cadbury.
This year the company plans to Move almost 70 million cases of chocolate — the equivalent of more than 200,000 tonnes.
The nation's chocoholics are highly seasonal eaters which means that Cadbury has to cope with huge surges of demand at Christmas and Easter. Running an ownaccount operation helps the company to spot confectionery distribution trends, reckons Kent. This ensures that Cadbury's transport network is continually changing to suit distribution demands.
Several major chains such as Woolworth have recently moved to central warehousing, and garages have also become major chocolate retail outlets.
Kent believes that own-account fleets can be more sensitive to everyday transport demands. This has been proved in cases of extreme hot weather, none of Cadbury's vehicles are refrigerated and a heatwave can easily wreak havoc. In such situations, Kent has been able to react quickly by moving deliveries to an early morning schedule or suspending them for the day. A third-party contractor would find it difficult to do the same, he says.
But Cadbury is aware of the advantages of contracting out. That is why most of its van delivery points are run by third-party operators. Only its four major stockholding depots are retained in-house, representing about 60% of its 131-strong fleet.
This arrangement is constantly reviewed by Cadbury's logistics team. Kent says that the current operation is costeffective and third-party operators enhance the firm's flexibility.
All outside distribution companies are instilled with the importance of the Cadbury image and both in-house and thirdparty fleets carry the distinctive company livery_ "All our vehicles are designed to complement what Cadbury is about. We have to make sure these mobile adverts have the desired effect on the general public," says Kent.
Two thirds of Cadbury's in-house fleet are Renaults with the rest comprising Fodens, Mercedes-Benz vehicles and one ERF. The latest fleet additions are Renault Midliners which Cadbury says "are performing very well".
Cadbury is now looking closely at the environmental impact of its transport operation and is already having talks with a bodybuilder about aerodynamic and Green distribution vehicles. "We want to show everybody that at least someone is caring about the environment," says Kent. III by Tanya Cordrey