Culina Logistics targets big boost to food services

The third-party logistics provider is rolling out ‘day-one for day-two’ deliveries for ambient food with Tesco and aims to offer the service to all major grocery retailers. This would mean goods delivered to Culina depots on one day are distributed to retailers the next day.

Currently ambient goods are often distributed two days after arriving at logistics depots.

Chief executive Thomas van Mourik told FoodManufacture.co.uk the move reflected the pressure retailers were putting on manufacturers to conform to tighter lead times and mirrored steps already taken in chilled food. The trend was towards moving fresh, chilled and ambient products with common processes and schedules in order to cut costs and improve availability, he said.

Tesco​​

“Our lead times in chilled are already tight and they are getting tighter in ambient,”​ said van Mourik. “We are going to ‘day-one for day-two’ with Tesco. When we set up Culina in 1994 we were delivering chilled food five days a week. Now it’s seven days a week and we are happy to do the same with ambient. We are talking to all the retailers and another is due to come on board shortly.”​

Mourik predicted Tesco would move to stockless depots relatively swiftly.

The trend would require smarter warehouse design and procedures and demand more efficient IT solutions, he said.

Covering all categories, building customer numbers and offering as many additional services as possible, such as contract packaging, would help Culina fend off competition, said van Mourik. For example, the firm intends to investigate increased collaboration, he said.

Culina had a close commercial relationship with Müller Dairy. “We are exploring tertiary distribution opportunities following Müller’s acquisition of Robert Wiseman Dairies,”​ he added.

£50M business​

Culina Group also aimed to make its newly launched Culina Fresh division a £50M business within three years, said van Mourik. “It’s a small business now, but we have got a three-year plan and we hope to develop it to about £50M in three years.”​

Culina launched Culina Fresh, the door-to-door freight management and multi-modal supply chain service for fresh and horticultural producers last November. It opened its first fresh produce depot in Spalding in January and announced the opening of its second at Heathrow in February.

The Spalding site in Lincolnshire offers a temperature controlled consolidation service dedicated to fresh and horticultural produce.

The Heathrow depot co-ordinates worldwide door-to-door temperature controlled sea and air freight and European road transport for customers moving fresh produce, horticulture and other short shelf-life items.

Culina is also using 50% of the space on a dedicated rail-freight service carrying seasonal produce between Valencia, Spain, and Dagenham in the UK to import items including lettuce and citrus fruit.