MHW Magazine News and stories from the Materials Handling Industry
Total logistics supplier, the Widdowson Group, has been selected by Omni-Pac, a leading packaging manufacturer based in Germany, for a three year contract worth over £1m. The contract is to bulk store and distribute moulded fibre packaging to major egg producers and fruit packers all around the UK.
The Widdowson Group has been working with Omni-Pac for the last two years, but when the logistics contract came up for renewal, Philip Anderson, Omni-Pac’s regional sales manager for South West Europe, decided to check out the opposition.
"We wanted to stay with Widdowson," he says, "but felt duty bound to see if there was a better company out there. We did look at a number of other businesses but none of them came up to Widdowson’s high standard or had the same level of transport coverage.
"Widdowson is very strong because they have a big fleet; this means they are able to take full trailers for us or we can take advantage of their groupage loads. This gives us a very cost effective logistics service which we believe is the best available option for Omni-Pac."
The moulded fibre packaging, which consists of egg boxes and fruit trays, is delivered into the Widdowson Group facility in Leicester on full articulated curtainsiders – approximately eight of these arrive each week from Germany. The egg cartons are blockstacked on the lorries in parcels that will pack up to 200 dozen eggs. Widdowson unload, palletise and stretchwrap the cartons before placing them carefully into storage where they are single stacked at ground level in racking to prevent damage.
Anderson continues, "Our customers are many and varied and keeping them all happy is a complicated logistical problem. As a result we have developed a close, day to day, working relationship with Widdowson which works very well. If we have an issue they are keen to find us a swift solution.
"We find Widdowson’s online POD check facility particularly useful, if there is a query we can immediately access the exact details of the delivery and rectify the problem."
Omni-Pac is part of the Pactiv Corporation of America, with 2009 sales of $3.4 billion, the company is a leader in the consumer and food service/food packaging market it serves.
The Widdowson Group has over 550,000 sq ft of modern warehousing at its Leicester based headquarters. The company’s Transport Division offers national distribution from one pallet to a full load, either on a dedicated, contractual, shared user or ad hoc basis. Widdowson has a modern fleet, in excess of 120 vehicles which extend from panic vans to 44 tonne artics and over 200 trailers
