PD Ports has won a contract with tea and coffee specialist, Taylors of Harrogate, to handle over 1,000 containers per annum of imported tea and coffee. The Company is famous for its named products including Yorkshire Tea and for its supply to the famous Bettys Tea Rooms.
A 40,000 sq ft warehouse has been ed to food grade standards at the North East port of Teesport, which is owned and operated by PD Ports. The imported tea and coffee products will be unloaded from containers at Teesport & stored to Taylors of Harrogate's required high standards.
The tea and coffee products arrive in containers from around the world and are unloaded by fork lift trucks with specialist attachments to move them from the container and onto pallets for storage.
As part of the value added supply chain process, product samples will be taken by PD Ports staff from the bags of coffee and tea. Taylors will then use these samples as part of its quality control process.
Richard Brewster, Commodities Shipping Manager at Taylors of Harrogate said: "Taylors has traditionally imported its teas and coffees through the Southern UK ports, then warehoused them in the South, prior to calling them in for their final journey to the Company's production facility at Harrogate. This historical link to the tea trade has served the industry extremely well in the past but with the introduction of the portcentric logistics solution at Teesport this new venture makes perfect sense on every level.
"We have successfully worked together with PD Ports to find a solution to reduce the number of road miles used when transporting our goods to their final destination. By shipping our products direct to Teesport and storing them on-site prior to their final short leg journey to Harrogate, we will significantly reduce our carbon footprint and provide a more cost effective option for our business."
David Robinson, PD Ports' Group CEO, said: "The arrival of Taylors of Harrogate at Teesport further cements the growing significance many of the UK's major brands and retailers give to the portcentric logistics solution offered by PD Ports. It gives further strength to our long term strategy to develop Teesport as the portcentric logistics hub for handling goods destined for Northern markets. We are delighted to have established what we expect to be a long and successful partnership with Taylors of Harrogate."