Nestlé, Pepsico, STEF and TRI-VIZOR have won the European Gold Medal for Supply Chain and Logistics – Project of the Year for their European project on cross-company cooperation between two competing manufacturers. This international event is organized by ELA (European Logistics Association), a federation of some 30 national organisations dedicated to the development of logistics covering almost every country in Central and Western Europe. The ceremony took place on April 22 at the WCO conference centre in Brussels.
Nestlé and Pepsico shared the storage, co-packing and distribution of fresh and chilled food products to their retail customers in Belgium and Luxembourg. Nestlé and Pepsico selected STEF to be their common logistics services operator. TRI-VIZOR acted as the “independent agent” guaranteeing the neutrality of their joint operation and its adherence to competition rules. Through the consolidation and proactive synchronisation of part of Nestle and pepsico’s loads, the cross-company cooperation thus developed significantly cut costs and, more importantly, reduced CO2 emissions.
This partnership creates benefits by reducing costs and improving the quality of service to retail clients. All earnings from these synergies are shared on the basis of an equitable formula, which will allow other producers of fresh and chilled food products to easily join this collaboration in the near future.
Romania places third
Third place was won by Romania, with their project Fashion Days Romania – Logistics & Operations with Style – which describes all operational initiatives developed during the past three years, among which establishing a strategic partnership with the international courier DPD, which ehanced delivery times to clients, installing an automatic conveyor system which eliminated human error in processing commands and expanding the warehousing capacity which allowed an increase in stocks, while keeping costs low.
Moreover, the Fashion Days team manage to substantially reduce the delivery costs and to implement a unitary charghing system in six different national denominations. They also introduced a parcel tracking system and an interractive delivery notification system for Fashion Days clients. At the same time, the company has in place a very flexible return policy, allowing clients a comfortable and fast way of returning the products, regardless of motive.