Community Foods needed to find a supply chain partner to support their manufacturing, processing and packing facility with logistics services.
COMMUNITY FOODS
COMMUNITY FOODS
Community Foods needed to find a supply chain partner to support their manufacturing, processing and packing facility with logistics services.
From the early days in a one-room set up in London in 1977, to a state-of-the art packaging and processing facility in Essex, Community Foods continues to go from strength to strength. The company is a specialist in the procurement, sale and distribution of natural and organic dried fruits, nuts, seeds, beans, pulses and cereals, for the retail and manufacturing sectors.
Over 25 years ago Community Foods needed to find a supply chain partner to support their manufacturing, processing and packing facility with logistics services; majoring in the receipt, storage and handling of dried fruits, nuts and other commodity products. Most importantly the company needed a partner that would grow with them. It required both a stable supply chain, with strategic stock holding to support their production facilities, and at the same time needed an agile partner to fulfill customers’ changeable requirements; and the business also had a growth agenda. These services would further extend to shipment and clearance arrangements, alongside value added services; such as quality approval and technical analysis of the products.
Commodity Centre has a long history of working within the dried fruit and nut sector, and were able to provide a solution which allowed for the combination of stability and agility, required by Community Foods (CFL), at a competitive rate.
The accredited, AA BRC, multi-user facility was employed to store the product and a dedicated site-to-site transfer trunk was established. Additional investments were made by Commodity Centre to increase the chilled capabilities at the site, allowing for the continued growth of Community Foods.
During 2019, Commodity Centre replaced the current Warehouse Management System (WMS) with a new system which allowed for greater visibility of stock levels, and automated the stock management and ordering process. Community Foods was the first client to transfer onto the system and both teams worked closely together on the project to develop and configure prior to implementation.
As a sign of the relationship strength, both businesses have continued to invest in the supply chain, culminating in a dedicated chilled storage facility and technical support, and most importantly, a ‘same day call off process’ owing to the proximity of the storage facility.
