SPAR UK and Oakland International Win IGD’s Supply Chain Excellence Award

SPAR UK and Oakland International have won the Ian MacLaurin Award for Supply Chain Excellence Award, for the SPAR UK National Consolidation Scheme, a partnership between the two companies in this year’s 2012 IGD food industry awards. Dean Attwell, Oakland International Managing Director, said: “We are absolutely delighted to win with SPAR UK as both companies are dedicated to reducing their carbon emissions through the introduction of renewable innovations ensuring we continue to deliver a sustainable and efficient supply chain initiative. “By working together, we have been able to provide an environmentally beneficial service for the end retailers as well as suppliers and in-store customers,” he said. SPAR UK and Oakland have been working together in this innovative and hugely effective collaboration, which is aimed at reducing SPAR’s overall carbon footprint, improved freshness and availability of product in stores and reduced wastage. The scheme involves collaboration throughout the supply chain, including SPAR central office, RDC’s, retailers and their suppliers as well as Oakland International, leading to a huge impact on carbon reduction, saving road miles by using an efficient and sustainable supply chain route. Vinesh Patel, SPAR UK Supply Chain Controller, said: “Since we launched our consolidation scheme three years ago, we have been able to deliver exceptional results in areas including improving freshness, availability of product, reduction of waste and reduced numbers of vehicles arriving at depots. “I am delighted that both companies are being recognised as a finalist for such a prestigious award,” he said. Tarun Patel, IGD’s director of supply chain and award judge said: “The finalists for this year’s Ian MacLaurin Award for Supply Chain Excellence have showed not only great vision, but also strong and successful execution in their supply chains. The changes they have made go above and beyond the requirements for day-to-day trading.” The Ian MacLaurin Award is given to a company that has had a real quantifiable impact on the supply chain, thanks to recent innovations in areas such as cost reduction, faster flow of product, application of technology or synchronisation of production. <Ends> Image details from L to R: Oakland International’s MD, Dean Attwell with Vinesh Patel, SPAR UK Supply Chain Controller. Editor’s notes: Oakland International is a multi temperature supply chain specialist in warehousing, distribution and logistics which has depots in the UK and Ireland, and encompasses Oakland Distribution. Multi-award wins include the Business in the Community Award for Carbon Reduction, the award for Best Logistics at Ireland’s Checkout National FMCG Awards as well as the UK Business Initiative of the Year award at The Grocer Gold Awards. Key industry associations include; British Frozen Food Federation (BFFF), Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD), Road Hauliers Association (RHA), Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) and a member of the Chamber of Commerce for Herefordshire and Worcestershire, and accredited by the British Retail Consortium (BRC). Company details:        Oakland International Limited UK: +44 (0) 1527 596 222 Ireland: +353 (0) 1835 4855 e: sales@oakland-international.com www.oakland-international.com Twitter: @OaklandIntUK For all Oakland International press and media enquiries in the first instance, please contact: Kathryn Watts t: +44 (0) 1299 266 149 m: +44 (0) 7970 547469 e: k.watts@evopr.com