DHL win £20m REHAU contract
DHL Supply Chain has been awarded a contract worth £20m across five years to provide warehouse and distribution services for global polymer processing supplier REHAU in the UK. The contract covers primary distribution of 40,000 tonnes of UVPC, steel and aluminum per annum from REHAU’s production facility in Blaenau Ffestiniog, north-west Wales, to the national distribution centre in Widnes, Cheshire.
DHL will also operate REHAU’s 17,650 m2 national distribution centre and handle national secondary distribution to customers, extending to 2,300 field locations. As well as reducing fixed costs, DHL plans to find further savings through transport initiatives, including the introduction of back-loading to make use of spare capacity on return legs of delivery journeys through DHL’s Electronic Freight Exchange system. DHL will also be increasing utilisation of the national distribution centre by introducing third party storage and utilising REHAU’s fleet to incorporate other areas of the business.
The new deal follows a 20-year relationship between the two companies which has delivered outstanding service levels and significant cost savings. REHAU comments that DHL’s stock accuracy of 99.99% in 2008 and delivery accuracy of 99.94% have contributed to the company’s centre in Widnes becoming its most efficient business sector warehouse globally.
