CEVA Newsfast wins Logistics contract with John West Foods Ltd
John West Foods Ltd has awarded CEVA Newsfast (formerly TNT Newsfast/Network Logistics) a euro 8.8 million per annum (GBP 6 million) logistics contract.
The long term contract, commencing April 1st, will be based at CEVA’s 755,000 sq ft multi-user centre in Mendlesham, Suffolk, UK with product being delivered through CEVA’s established shared user distribution network to a wide range of wholesalers, supermarket regional distribution centres (RDCs) and food retailers.
The CEVA network already handles a range of grocery items for other leading brand manufacturers including Twinings, Wrigleys, Golden Wonder and Del Monte and also offers primary consolidation centre facilities to leading multiple retailers Tesco and Somerfield.
“Both the producers and the retailers find we can offer the end to end solution, the service quality – and, just as importantly, the cost efficiencies they need,” says David Bermingham, Managing Director, CEVA Newsfast. “We also help reduce congestion on the road and at the retailers’ RDCs by consolidating goods within our network.”
John West, the leading brand of canned tuna and fish in the UK, was acquired by Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking along with other leading European seafood brands Petit Navire (France) and Mareblu (Italy) from HJ Heinz in a deal worth euro 425 million, completed in March 2006.
The sale prompted a reassessment of the way the supply chain operated for John West products, which are currently handled through the Heinz central warehouse at Wigan.
Ian Meadows, John West Managing Director, says: “Excellent customer service is fundamental to the success of John West’s business. In CEVA Newsfast I am confident we have found a partner which will be able to use the scale of its distribution network and experience of handling imported food products, at the same time as having the flexibility to develop tailor-made solutions for our specific needs. I look forward to a successful partnership.”
The products, primarily from John West’s own canning factories in the Seychelles, Ghana and Portugal, come into the UK via the Port of Felixstowe where Newsfast already operates an import centre. About 3,500 sea containers a year, an average of fourteen a day, will be handled through Newsfast’s Mendlesham site with the company’s port operation providing additional support during peak periods of activity.
“We will store up to 16,000 pallets at Mendlesham and we have recently completed an investment programme at the site involving the setting up of a dedicated re-packing operation for the contract as well as a quality control laboratory where John West QC staff will be based,” says Mr Bermingham.
