The manufacturer says that the inauguration of a new co-packing facility at its distribution plant in York, England, will allow the company to streamline its operations around the UK to cut down on the overall use of lorries to transport its goods.
Amidst European and member state drives to ensure more sustainable distribution systems across the food and drink supply chain, companies are coming under greater scrutiny of how they are shipping merchandise, especially in consideration of carbon footprints.
Streamlining
In light of this crackdown, a spokesperson for Nestle claims the co-packing shake up will amalgamate the work of five separate co-packing plants that were previously housed around the UK, aligning them with its distribution sites in York and Bardon.
“This will significantly reduce the need to transport stock intended for co-packing around the country,” states the spokesperson. “The move could cut the need for around 4000 lorry loads per year, equivalent to transporting goods around 300,000 lorry miles.”
The York site, which Nestle says will be run by long-term co-pack collaborator IPS, will be responsible for handling between 200 to 400 product lines, according to the company. Many of these products are expected to relate to Nestle’s confectionery business, although other food and beverage brands may also be included, says the company.
After unveiling construction of the new co-packing site last October, Paul Grimwood, head of Nestle’s UK confectionery division, claimed co-packers are often required to combine products sourced from different locations, such as the case for selection boxes. As a result of the new site, Grimwood said he hoped that this would be less of an issue for the company in the future.
"We are continually looking for ways to reduce our impact on the environment so rather than moving stock backwards and forwards around the country it makes sound environmental and business sense to bring the co-packing to one of Nestle’s largest distribution centres,” he stated at the time.
Freight fears
The new co-pack site comes into operation at a time, when the issue of food and drink manufacturers’ use of haulage has become a major political issue.
On a European level, disagreement continues to rage over proposals for a new toll of a few cents per kilometre on freight haulage companies based on the polluter pays principle.
The Eurovignette Directive aims to ensure that lorries distributing food and drink and other consumer goods ‘internalise the full external costs’ related to the noise, pollution and congestion they cause.
It forms part of a Commission plan to encourage a shift from air and road freight to rail and waterways freight, considered more environmentally sustainable.
However, transport ministers at an EU Council of Ministers meeting on March 30 failed to reach an agreement over the issue.
The International Road Transport Union (IRU), which represents trucks, argues that internalising external costs for road transport only, without proper cost-benefit analyses, will undermine the EU's Lisbon goals of boosting growth, jobs and competitiveness and should be stopped, "especially in these times of recession".