Weetabix signs new four-year deal with LPR
UK cereal brand, Weetabix, has signed a new four-year deal with Europe’s second largest pallet pool operator, LPR. The contract, which runs to December 2016, extends the existing three-year working relationship. It will ensure Weetabix’s cereal products, including other key brands such as Alpen, Ready Brek and Oatibix, will continue to be transported on LPR’s distinctive red pallets – totalling in excess of 850,000 pallet movements per year.
LPR’s ability to tailor its service to customer needs was a key factor in winning and extending its contract with Weetabix. As part of the initial deal in 2009, LPR set up a pallet processing facility at Weetabix’s Burton Latimer depot. LPR invested £160,000 in the site in late November 2011, increasing capacity for sort and repair to more than 25,000 pallets per week.
A Weetabix source commented: “We are very pleased to be extending our contract with LPR. Since moving to use their pallets in 2009, we have worked closely with the LPR team in a partnership arrangement. Their business model, which uses the same logistics provider as we do, enables transport optimisation, as the pallets are returned to the on-site sort and repair facility. In addition, pallet quality is consistently high.”
He added: “Pallets are essential in keeping the FMCG supply chain moving. As a result of the Burton Latimer sort and repair facility, we have tight control and security of our pallet supply and we are able to make a reduction on our environmental impact.”
The Weetabix pallet repair facility is manned by trained personnel, who check each pallet returned to the depot from retailers’ distribution centres. Any necessary repairs are made on site to ensure each pallet achieves LPR’s stringent quality controls. In addition, the on-site facility also enables Weetabix to deliver a substantial reduction in transport movements by eliminating the need to collect pallets from external processing locations.
Jane Gorick, managing director at LPR UK, said: “LPR prides itself on its flexibility, adapting its services to meet the individual needs of its customers. We’re absolutely delighted that, as a result, we’re able to continue our positive working relationship with the team at Weetabix. Indeed, the growing number of blue chip FMCG clients committing to LPR demonstrates that our approach of flexibility, quality, reliability and listening to the customers’ needs is essential in the modern business environment.”
LPR collects pallets in 12 countries across Europe through more than 80 local depots. The business, which is a division of Euro Pool System, handles more than 45 million pallet movements a year, with turnover in excess of 117 million Euros.
