NESTLÉ AND MARS JOIN FORCES FOR
CHRISTMAS CONFECTIONERY DELIVERIES
December 14, 2009
Since the beginning of September 2009 Nestlé and Mars have been working together to jointly reduce the environmental impact of their deliveries of Christmas confectionery to Tesco. The initiative, currently running as a trial, involves Nestlé and Mars sharing trucks to deliver combined loads of some of UK's biggest selling Christmas confectionery favourites, including Mars' Celebrations and Nestlé's Quality Street. The trial has been running for 11 weeks and has so far resulted in over 60 loads being combined, removing over 12,000 kilometres of duplicate truck journeys.
Nestlé and Mars have come together in support of their joint commitment to the Food Industry Sustainability Strategy (FISS) target to reduce the environmental costs of food transport by 20%, by 2012.
By working closely with Tesco's Supply Chain team, Mars and Nestlé have been able to synchronise their deliveries to each of the three Regional Distribution Centres so that any part load orders that either company receive, can be combined into one truck load. The Nestlé and Mars Customer Service and Logistics teams then work together to plan a single vehicle to collect from each companies distribution centres before delivering the combined orders to Tesco.
Richard Hastings, Nestlé’s Head of Planning & Delivery said:
“We have reduced the packaging across our entire Christmas confectionery range and the partnership with Mars now allows us to reduce the environmental impact of our Christmas confectionery deliveries to Tesco. This is good news for the environment.”
Heather Simpson, Mars UK’s Customer Logistics Manager added:
“Acting responsibly goes to the very core of Mars’ business objectives. Our focus is on areas where we believe we can make a genuine difference and this latest initiative is part of an ongoing campaign where Mars is continually looking for ways to reduce our impact on the environment. This is another milestone proving how food manufacturers can conduct business in a more environmentally friendly and efficient way.”
For deliveries to Southampton and Medway, the trucks start at Nestlé's Distribution Centres (DC) at Bardon near Leicester, going on to collect the remainder of their load from Mars DC at Desborough. For Belfast loads, the truck collects from Bardon before moving on to Mars DC at Melton Mowbray to pick up the rest of the load.
The transport collaboration between the two companies has been made possible through their involvement in sustainability initiatives championed by ECR UK and supported by the Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD). These initiatives have been successful in galvanising the food and drink industry in support of the FISS target and have been responsible for removing around 53 million miles of food transport from the UK's roads.
For more information please call
Nestle Press Office on 0208 667 6005
Mars Press Office on 0203 003 6632
