< Previous20-25:Layout 1 22/3/12 14:55 Page 1IMPORT AND EXPORTwww.fdiforum.net21The timing has never been better forcompanies exploring new territories.Consumer tastes are developing hugely,more and more products are finding newaudiences far removed from their roots,and numerous businesses are reportingincreased profits in previously unheraldedmarkets.This looks set to continue still furtheras importing and exporting takes onincreased importance for the industry.Indeed, the UK has recently launched theExports Action Plan, which aims to cutthrough many of the barriers currentlyfaced by potential exporters and helptowards the drive for industry growth of20% by 2020.The action plan has been overseen by aForum co-chaired by Food and FarmingMinister Jim Paice and Paul Grimwood,Deputy President of the Food and DrinkFederation and Chief Executive of NestléUK. The plan identifies a number ofactions to boost exports includingremoving trade barriers, encouraging andputting in place measures to help SMEsexport, shifting the focus to emergingeconomies and highlighting exporting asthe key route to growth.FDF Director General Melanie Leechsays, “The core of food and drinkmanufacturing is SMEs and it can bedifficult for these companies to access thehelp and support that they need to takethat first step to export. Therefore theopportunity to work in partnership withDefra and UKTI has been embraced byindustry.“This plan contains many commonsense actions that can be taken forwardin a relatively short timescale to deliverresults as well as those initiatives that aremore complex and longer term. We willbe reviewing our progress in a year’s timeand I hope that the Exports Action Planwill make a significant contribution to yetanother year of record exports and to ouroverall vision for industry growth.”One of the major challenges for thoseimporting and exporting has always beenthe logistical hurdles they have tosurmount, including the storage andsecurity of their products during theprocess. Goods are increasingly required attheir end location faster than ever before,but logistics companies must balance thisneed for speed with an assurance thatproduct integrity won’t be compromised.23 Eddie Stobart has agreed a deal to takeoccupation of the 67,689 sq ft Pinnaclebuilding at Eurocentral, to establish a newdistribution facility on the business park,creating around forty jobs at the site.Export efficiencyWith consumer tastes becoming increasingly adventurous, importers and exportershave to rise to the challenge20-25:Layout 1 22/3/12 14:55 Page 220-25:Layout 1 22/3/12 14:55 Page 3IMPORT AND EXPORTwww.fdiforum.net23To this end, in the past year the EUhave put in place advance cargo securityregulations known as the Import ControlSystem. Introduced at the start of 2011,the ICS is phase one of the AutomatedImports System, where within a decadethe aim is to provide full electroniccustoms procedures to all member statesusing a number of technical and legalsystems – perhaps better known as theMulti Annual Strategic Plan, or MASP.In essence, all cargo arriving into theEU is subject to security and safetychecks 24 hours prior to loading at theorigin port. The transmission ofinformation from origin to the EU is theresponsibility of the carriers withassistance from freight forwardersthrough an electronic message – an ENS.The ENS transmits to the customsauthorities in the first port of call withinthe EU, who can then conduct riskassessments and pass on the informationto the other ports where it is due tooffload. The challenge for shipping firms,therefore, is to ensure as muchinformation is available as possible, anddistribution specialists can providevaluable assistance in this regard.Storage successesBusinesses have also been assisted bythe improved logistics facilities nowavailable. In the UK, these havebenefited from Enterprise Zone statusallowing for relaxed planning laws andother advantages to improve theircompetitiveness. The Humber Ports,which are undergoing huge investment,are one example, while in Scotland, theEurocentral development betweenGlasgow and Edinburgh is continuing toexpand.Muse Developments sanctioned a£21.2 million speculative build toconstruct the Pinnacle and Zenithbuildings on a 17.4 acre site atEurocentral, followed by an additional£33 million speculative investment inMarch 2011 which delivered two furtherbuildings and three smaller units, all ofwhich were completed in December lastyear. Eddie Stobart has agreed a deal totake occupation of the 67,689 sq ftPinnacle building at Eurocentral, toestablish a new distribution facility onthe business park and create around fortyjobs at the site.Steve Turner, Muse Developments’regional director in Scotland, says, “Atthe time we made the investment, few inthe sector were making similarcommitments, but we still felt the mix oflocation, Enterprise Zone benefits, energyefficiency and our track record of working24 Left: Companies such as Davies Turner are ensuring effectivefacilities at portsBelow: New warehouse management systems are making thedifference - Community Foods, for example, has improvedstock recording accuracy by 15% in six months using BalloonOne’s wireless warehouse management system20-25:Layout 1 22/3/12 14:55 Page 424www.fdiforum.netIMPORT AND EXPORTwith clients in terms of flexibility anddeals would deliver result. We believethere remains a desire and demand formodern distribution and production unitsin key locations in Scotland.”Logistics have also been a majorconsideration for a host of otherwarehousing and storage developments inthe UK. For example, Barwood arepromoting numerous design and buildopportunities at their new developmentoff Junction 11 of the M40 in Banbury,where companies can benefit fromexceptional transport links and thepresence of many leading food and drinkcompanies, such as Kraft, in the localarea.A multimodal approach is also provinghighly successful at the former collierysite in North Warwickshire which is nowthe Birch Coppice Business Park. Ocadohave begun construction of its secondCustomer Fulfilment Centre at the site,which is due to be completed by the endof the year and will be home to extensive,multi-level conveyor-belt networks andsophisticated IT systems.Jason Jasper of IM Properties says,“The success of Birch Coppice to datemust be attributed to the development’son-site intermodal rail freight facilities.While road connections remain vital tothe distribution industry, we have futureproofed occupiers operations at BirchCoppice through the provision of railfacilities. At present the development isserviced by six to eight trains per dayand, with rail freight volume predicted byNetwork Rail to increase by as much as30% by 2014/15, we very much anticipatean increase in rail freight transport byoccupiers over the coming years. This is aBusiness Park we hope will continue toattract astute and ambitious occupierswho recognise its unique proposition.”These impressive logistical offeringsare valuable at a time when lead timesare being cut dramatically. A recentsurvey by IGD Supply Chain Analysisreveals that over 60% of retailers, and55% of manufacturers, believe that leadtimes will fall by up to one day over thenext five years, thanks to a more flexibleapproach to dealing with peaks inconsumer demand. Tarun Patel, head of Supply ChainAnalysis at IGD, says, “Manufacturersand retailers are investing in operatingprocesses and systems that enable supplychains to be more responsive and flexible.Retailers have invested in moresophisticated systems that help thembetter plan for weather changes, and theimpact of both promotions and seasonalevents. This allows retailers to be moreprecise about what stock they need fromsuppliers - it’s now moved from just incase, to just in time.“Retailers are cutting their inventoriesby holding stock in fewer locations, witheach serving more stores. They arerequiring more categories to be stockless– holding products for less than 24 hoursbefore they are needed in-store. As aresult, they are working with suppliers toshorten lead times to now includecategories outside fresh produce in thestockless process.”Such is the importance of freshness andconvenience that it’s reported in the USAthat many retailers are starting to buydirectly from farmers in South America,rather than the traditional route of usingimporters. This involves the use of directcontainer shipments from Latin Americato the USA, and therefore increasinglyuses multimodal systems such as rail tohelp reduce lead times, costs andimportantly, carbon emissions. Muchwork is going on to offer betterrefrigeration technology on trains,providing more effective product integrity.It used to be that many foodstuffs wereonly infrequent visitors to our shelves,such was the difficulty in getting them tothe world’s retailers. Consumer demandnow means that, these days, this can’t bethe case – retailers want to have a hugerange of products on sale consistently.The challenge is to ensure that this canbe done in as secure and as efficient amanner as possible.Langdons have recently taken deliveryof five new eleven metre “Urban”trailers from Gray and Adams,designed to service limited accesscollection and delivery locations andimprove the efficiency of logisticsoperations20-25:Layout 1 22/3/12 14:55 Page 520-25:Layout 1 22/3/12 14:55 Page 626-29:Layout 1 22/3/12 15:01 Page 1The cold hard factsCOLD STORAGEwww.fdiforum.net27Managing a chilled storage facilitywhile moving goods through lowtemperature logistics can be fraught withcosts, both financially andenvironmentally. Following strict hygieneand legislature along the way is alsoimportant. Those caught out could facelarge fines or withdrawals of the abilityto work with perishable foodstuffs. An EU-funded research project, heldover four years has tried to address thisfact. The project, entitled ‘Frisbee’, waslaunched in 2010 and involves 26partners, including the InternationalInstitute of Refrigeration. The IIR is incharge of collecting data and thedissemination of research outcomes. Theaim is to provide new technologies inorder to reduce the energy consumptionand the environmental impact of the coldchain without reducing the quality andsafety of foodstuffs.The first phase of the project involvedtaking stock of the cold chain in Europe.Over 50,000 industrial stakeholders werecontacted and invited to contribute time-temperature data on their products alongwith data on the technology employed.Surveys have also been conducted inorder to grasp industrial stakeholders’needs and to gain an insight intoconsumer expectations. The data willthen be analysed in order to developmathematical models integrating product-quality criteria as well as environmentaland economic aspects. Thanks to these models, severalinnovative technologies have beenassessed. One type of technology is beingpatented within the framework of theFrisbee project - it involves the use ofnano-biostructured phase-changematerials to store energy, with the PCMsmounted in or on surfaces that can bereadily integrated into existingrefrigeration equipment. Advancedregulation enabling optimisation of theenergy consumption of plants is alsobeing investigated. Simultaneously, certain partners areworking on breakthrough technologiessuch as magnetic refrigeration. Thisemerging technology developed withinthe framework of the Frisbee project hasbeen patented and will enter a pilotphase. This could see vast cost reductionover the whole chilled food and drinksector, meaning both static storagefacilities and refrigeration could bebenefitting from better technology in thenear future. Using these smart techniques28 Keeping food and drink fresher for longer by using both cold storage and chilledtransportation is becoming more common, but this also means the supply chain isfurther complicated. How are companies dealing with this?The cold hard facts26-29:Layout 1 22/3/12 15:01 Page 228www.fdiforum.netCOLD STORAGEcould reduce overall cost for the entirechain, enabling companies across theworld to become more competitive.Seeing the lightLighting is a major issue for those whowork in cold storage. The ability toeffectively light warehouses is somethingthat has brought about a large number ofinnovations. Movement sensors andeffective lighting patterns can saveexpenditure and with the advent of moreenergy-saving designs of the actual bulbsused, energy-expensive lighting isbecoming a thing of the past. After all,why light an area of a cold storage facilitythat isn’t occupied a high percentage ofthe time? Using bulbs that can also dealwith low temperatures is important too.Dairy Crest, for example, recentlyrequired an energy saving solution for thelighting at their Stroud installation wherethe varying applications across the siterequired a total solution.Dexeco supplied their Ambient LEDlowbay for the high level refrigeratedwarehousing areas and the Ambient EcoImpervia LED was installed in the lowlevel refrigerated areas. Both luminariesare designed to work in a wide range oftemperatures from -40° to +35°centigrade and offer excellent energysavings against HID equivalents throughreduced power consumption and theability to integrate sensor control.In some areas the ceiling designrequired a bespoke approach to allow fora quick and simple installation, a criticalelement of Dexeco’s ethos of minimisinginstallation costs to maximise return oncustomer investment. The use of LEDs in the lowtemperature areas allowed for effectivelighting with full sensor control andremote control programming capability,avoiding the pitfalls of fluorescent orHID sources in these areas with whichlumen depreciation and sensor controlbecome problematic.In order to provide Dairy Crest withcomplete confidence in the product allluminaries were supplied with a five yearwarranty and Philips Constant LightOutput LEDs, providing 50,000 hours ofoperation with 0% lumen depreciationfrom the light source. This minimises theneed to over light the installation fromthe outset and results in lower capitalcost and further reductions in energyconsumption.Chilled out electronic movement In October last year, Renault Truckshanded over a 100% electric truck toSTEF, a cold-chain logistics specialist.The manufacturer claims it is the largestever electric truck for food delivery andhas recently started a year of rigoroustesting in the city of Lyons, France. It issmaller than the 26 tonne hybridPremium Hybrys Tech, but much largerthan the 4 tonne fully electric Maxitymodels already in use.Weighing sixteen tonnes and withbatteries weighing two tonnes, the103kW electric engine is powered bythree lithium-ion battery-packs whoseoverall capacity amounts to 150 kWh andcan be recharged in eight hours thanks toa 400 V three-phase 64 A power line. Ithas a guaranteed 100 km autonomy span,but has actually demonstrated a higherautonomy thanks to its oversizedbatteries. Currently operating 75kmdelivery runs daily to Carrefoursupermarkets in and around Lyons aspart of testing, if it proves successful, itcould see a rollout across the sector.It can accommodate 5.5 tonnes ofuseful load, can hold eighteen pallets andis designed for controlled-temperaturetransport thanks to a Carrier refrigerationunit which can operate in diesel orelectric mode. The driver may decidewhich mode the cooling unit shouldoperate in, according to the type ofjourney, delivery times and remainingautonomy.This ensures that loads are notneedlessly overchilled or not chilledenough, which is surely a concern for anymanufacturer sending food or drink ontothe road. Using too much power to chillfood down to temperatures they do notneed to be is surely waste too, somonitoring levels at every step of the wayis something all companies should bewary of.Cool deliveryWith a continuing trend towardsshorter order lead times and lowerinventories in supply chains, this hasresulted in a growing requirement forshared-user systems.At Langdons, a cold storage and chilledlogistics company, next day delivery ispossible to most regions for chilled orfrozen traffic right down to a single palletshipment. Goods for consolidation arebrought into controlled temperaturewarehouses and then loaded on todelivery vehicles, which might be carryingan array of products to the samedestination.ChillNet is the name for thepartnership solution for the 1 to 5 palletdistribution market. Langdon’s work withpartners Sawyers and STL means theirPHOTO: STEF26-29:Layout 1 22/3/12 15:01 Page 3COLD STORAGEwww.fdiforum.net29network is extended to Ireland, enablingthem to serve thousands of deliverypoints.Dual-temperature trunk vehicles andrigids (many with tail-lifts) are used tocater for frozen and chilled consignmentson the same vehicles delivering cost-effective solutions for small volumedrops.Typically, consignments of just one ortwo pallets of frozen or chilled foodproducts are collected on day one anddelivered on day two anywhere in the UKmainland as far north as Aberdeen.Langdons also add one day formovements to and from Ireland. This is achieved by networkingLangdons depots in Bridgwater, Luton,Peterborough, Redditch, Dover,Liverpool, Glasgow and Barnsley as wellas partner depots in Moy on NorthernIreland, Dublin and Limerick. Most ofthese depots are connected directly witheach other overnight using dualtemperature, 26-pallet capacityarticulated vehicles.So for example, one pallet fromPlymouth to Norwich would be collectedby a Bridgwater-based vehicle, returnedto Bridgwater, put on one of the nighttrunkers for Peterborough and thentransferred to another vehicle for finaldelivery the next day.This shows a smooth system inoperation, careful logistics coupled withinvestment in chilled distribution storagemeans fresh food from any of the UK’sports and entry points can be delivered tothe customer with minimum cost anddifficulty. PHOTO: DAIRY CREST26-29:Layout 1 22/3/12 15:01 Page 4Next >