Tibbett & Brittan awarded Retail Logistics contract In Hungary
Tibbett & Britten Hungária Kft, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tibbett & Britten Group plc, has been awarded a long-term open-book logistics contract by Csemege-Match of Hungary to provide warehousing and secondary distribution services for its Match and Smatch supermarket chains throughout that country. The contract is initially valued at around £7 million a year for up to six years. (10/14/2002)
P Csemege-Match is part of the French-based multinational retail group, Match Supermarkets, and is one of Hungary’s leading grocery retailers. Having previously handled its logistics requirements in-house, it has now transferred to Tibbett & Britten the operation of its 24,000 sq m (258,000 sq ft) dedicated multi-temperature national distribution centre at Vecsés, south east of Budapest.
A wide range of food and non-food merchandise is distributed from this location, including chilled food, fresh produce, ambient dry goods, as well as non-food categories. There are some 6300 product lines (SKUs), and delivery volumes are around 1000 pallets a day.
Tibbett & Britten Hungária Kft has recruited a team of 300 staff for the contract, 47 of whom have transferred from Csemege. In addition to warehousing, cross-docking, picking and order assembly, the company is also responsible for deliveries to 133 Match/Smatch supermarkets throughout Hungary, plus Csemege’s chain of 19 Alfa cash & carries.
Match Supermarkets employs a total of 4,000 people and generates annual revenues of EUR320 million (approx. £200 million). It is part of the Belgium-based Louis Delhaize Group, which also owns the Cora and Profi retail chains.
Gerard Guerin, Group Louis Delhaize Logistics Director with responsibility for co-ordinating logistics for Cora, Match and Profi, commented: “We needed to improve our logistics operations, and approached Tibbett & Britten initially because of their reputation and their international and domestic experience of retail logistics. If the new open-book contract proves successful, then it could be a major opportunity for them with other Match and Cora supermarkets across central Europe.”
Mike Arrowsmith, Tibbett & Britten Group Chief Executive Officer, added: “Increasing activity by international retailers is significantly raising the standards of retail logistics in Hungary, and making greater demands on local 3PL providers. We are benefiting from this trend and are currently actively involved in the introduction of logistics best practice into the domestic market.”
Tibbett & Britten has been a major player in the Hungarian logistics market since winning the Unilever central warehousing and distribution contract in 1998. This operation is now based at the Group’s purpose-built £11.2 million 55,000-pallet composite distribution centre at Üllö to the south of Budapest. Since then, the company has added the nationwide distribution of confectionery for Stollwerck, and, at the end of 1999, central non-food warehousing for UK retail giant Tesco – Hungary’s largest hypermarket chain operator. It also numbers Auchan, Cora, Profi and Spar among its retail customers.
