British supermarket chain Morrisons has announced plans to open a new primary consolidation centre (PCC) in Kent.
The 10,000-pallet capacity site will accept regular deliveries from suppliers in the south east of England.
“The PCC model, that has been developed specifically for us by Bibby Distribution, has already delivered substantial benefits at the first two PCCs, which have been in operation since April 2013,” said Kevin Yapp, general manager for primary distribution at Morrisons.
The time is now right to expand out to a new region, he added.
“Once all five planned PCCs are open by mid-2015, we expect to have taken out £20 million of inventory while improving on-shelf availability.”
Bibby already operates two other PCCs for Morrisons in Corby and Yeadon.
The multi-sku, multi-vendor loads can be delivered to regional distribution centres allowing supermarkets to benefit from ‘little and often’ deliveries.
This assists Morrisons in optimising its delivery centre usage, leading to reduced operating costs.
PCCs allow Morrisons to use its own vehicles returning to distribution centres to collect loads from suppliers at backhaul rates.
This procedure reduces costs and boosts fleet utilisation.
© 2014 - European Supermarket Magazine
