UK Fresh Produce Manufacturer Renews With Pooling Partners
25th January 2017
Fenmarc, one of the UK’s largest prepared fresh produce manufacturers, has renewed a major contract with Pooling Partners, Europe’s leading poolers of sustainable wooden pallets, which aims to drive major supply chain efficiencies.
Cambridgeshire-based Fenmarc, which employs more than 200 staff at its Elm head office, uses both Pooling Partners’ Trade Direct and One Way Trip supply chain models, which ensure quality pallets, speed and efficiencies when getting product to major supermarkets within tight delivery windows. It also uses a mix of standard and Euro pallets – where it has seen a 59 per cent increase in use – to offer greater logistical flexibility.
The business, which prepares and packs a diverse range of vegetables, has been working with Pooling Partners since 2012 and over the past five years has overseen a programme of continuous improvement which has even led to price reductions.
Phil Beckett, supply chain director for Fenmarc, said: “It is all down to responsiveness and simplicity. Pallets should not be something that take a lot of management. Before we signed with them we had to spend a lot of time dealing with deliveries, quality issues and queries on incredibly complicated invoices. We order pallets, they arrive and we use them as part of a very simple and transparent arrangement. Regular audits then allow both parties to proactively manage stocks in order to prevent issues.”