June 2011

29th June 2011

Jane Norman has gone into administration with debts of £140 million.

Homeform Group (Kitchens Direct, Moben, Dolphin and Sharps) has filed for administration.  Its directors are close to securing a deal that will safeguard the future of the Sharps and Kitchen Direct businesses, while it plans to sell Moben and Dolphin.

TJ Hughes has filed a notice of intention to appoint an administrator.

Thorntons is closing up to 180 high street stores over the next 3 years as their leases expire.  It will focus on its commercial division, which sells thorntons-branded chocolates through other retailers and grow online sales.

Morrisons has opened a dedicated sourcing base in Hong Kong in an effort to cut out the middleman and exploit further opportunities in the region.  This will see it deal directly with suppliers of home and leisure products, as well as other categories in the Asian region.

DHL Express has appointed Neil Kuschel as Director of Sales for the UK.  Neil's focus is the internationally expanding SME market.

Ceva Logistics has been recognised as an Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) in the UK & EU.  The AEO concept constitutes a main element of the customs security programme of EU approved parties with AEO status benefit from customs simplifications and fast-tracking of applications.

DHL Supply Chain has won a contract with Bloch (dancewear wholesaler).  The 3 year contract is for warehousing and distribution at Radlett, Hertfordshire.  DHL Express also distributes to stores in the UK & Europe.

Geodis Calberson has opened a new 20,000 sqft hub in Middlemore Industrial Estate, Birmingham to handle European freight and will handle European cargo sent via Eurotop and Eurofirst services.

Seafield Logistics has newly built a 45,000 sqft warehouse at Premier Park, Winsford.

25th June 2011

OOCL Logistics has renewed its contract with Debenhams.  OOCL Logistics continues to provide international supply chain management services for Debenhams from origin factories in Asia through to UK distribution centres.

Adidas is investing €100 million in a new distribution centre in Niedersachsenpark, Germany which is due to open in 2013.  The new facility will consolidate deliveries for the whole of Western Europe.

Comet could be put up for sale after annual results described as 'unsatisfactory and unacceptable' says its boss.  Comet made an annual loss of £8.9 million to 30th April 2011 and turnover was down 6.8% to £1.54 billion.

Home Retail Group is in talks to buy Habitat.  There is also another firm in the bidding.

Wincanton is delivering 11 million litres of water to festival events across the UK, including the V Festival, Notting Hill Carnival and the Glastonbury Festival.

Logwin has won a contract with STILL.  Logwin will transport spare parts for the repair and maintenance of industrial trucks from STILL's HQ in Hamburg to Wiener Neudorf (nr Vienna).  From there, the drivers will distribute parts directly to engineers throughout Austria overnight.

20th June 2011

Bibby Distribution has reported its financial results for the year ending December 2010:

     Turnover: £230 million (2009: £185 million), up 24% on 2009.

     Profit Before Tax: £7 million (2009: £5.8 million), up 21% on 2009.

Over the last 4 years, compound profit growth has been at 25% year-on-year, despite the backdrop of the challenging economic climate.

Gist has been named Technology & Logistics Supplier of the year at The Grocer Gold Awards 2011.

Tradeteam has won a 3 year warehousing and distribution contract with Bibendum which commences in September 201. Tradeteam will serve Bibendum's customers using a dedicated core fleet which will operate between a principle national stock holding at one of Tradeteam's Southern based warehouses and a secondary stock holding in Scotland along with 4 RDCs.

Yusen Logistics has won a contract with Honda UK to be the sole provider for inbound parts collection for its Swindon plant.  Yusen provides collection from 59 UK suppliers and operates over 500 routes a week.  Each route includes the collection of components and the return or packaging.

16th June 2011

Wincanton's Chaiman, David Edmonds is stepping down as he considers that now would be the right time for the new management team to forge a partnership with a new Chairman to develop the Group's business into the future.  A search for a new Chairman is under way and when this hapens he will step down.  Wincanton has announced that, to meet the strategic challenges ahead, it has a new management team on the Board.  Also, Walter Hasselkus, Non-Executive Director will also leave the Board.

Norbert Dentressangle has won a contract with British Polythene Industries (BPI).  Norbert Dentressangle will provide national warehousing and distribution to serve BPI's 3 recycled products operations at Rhymney (South Wales), Stroud (Gloucester) and Heanor (Derbyshire).  

Delamode is commencing 3 new groupage routes to Georgia, Armenia and Iran.

Culina Logistics Ireland has won a contract with Feldhues.  The contract is for managing the distribution of products to Grocery retailers throughout Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.  It includes all storage, order picking and distribution of products through Culina's shared-user network.  The contract will be managed from Culina's 173,000 sqft chilled, ambient and temperature-controlled warehouse at Rathcoole, County Dublin.

Kuehne & Nagel Group has appointed Horst-Joachim Schacht and Tim Scharwath to Kuehne & Nagel International AG management Board as at 1st September 2011.  Horst will be responsible for the 'Sea Logistics' business unit and Tim will be responsible for the 'Air Logistics' business unit.  These were previous responsibilities of Peter Ulber who is leaving the business due to personal reasons.

DHL Supply Chain has launched a dedicated waste and recycling arm called 'DHL Envirosolutions'.  DHL Envirosolutions operate a fully managed nationwide service, from traditional waste management  and recycling through integrated back-haul and customer take-back programmes.  The division is licensed to handle any form of waste material, from bulk recyclables to dangerous and hazardous waste.

10th June 2011

Wincanton Group has reported pre-tax losses of £25.9 million in the year to 31st March 2011 compared to profits of £3 million in the previous year after it incurred restructuring costs.  Underlying profits were down by 0.9% to £34.4 million while revenues were flat at £2.2 billion.  The Group revealed that its Foodservice business made a loss in the year.  Although the business will continue to make a loss this year, it believes it can recover by growing its share of the market.  Wincanton also plans to grow its operations in the Public Sector.  Wincanton is focusing on areas with strong growth potential and strip out underperforming operations, starting with the sale of 3 businesses on mainland Europe, including its German road arms in Central and Eastern Europe and its logistics operations in The Netherlands.

London City Bond has won a contract with Zenzan.  London City Bond will store products at its Barking warehouse as well as the picking and delivery of bottles to drinks manufacturers across the UK.

Norbert Dentressangle has won a contract with JKH Drainage.  Norbert Dentressangle will make collections from JKH's warehouse in Mildenhall, Suffolk.  Orders are then processed and consolidated, then trunked overnight to Norbert Dentressangle's regional depots for final delivery.

ACS&T Logistics has won a contract with Young's Seafood.  ACS&T will provide storage, picking and distribution services.

Norbert Dentressangle has renewed its contract with The Highways Agency.  Norbert Dentressangle manages a storage and distribution operation from its shared-user warehouse in Telford.  Norbert Dentressangle will also be responsible for the phased migration of products from manufacturers sites in Gatwick, Aylesbury and Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.

Multipart has won a contract with MG Motor UK to handle its aftermarket parts business.  

Yearsley Group has appointed Mark Haslam as its new Head of Logistics.  Mark will oversee the national network of 12 cold stores and a fleet of more than 300 temperature controlled vehicles.  Mark comes from Sutton Group where he was the Managing Director for the UK operations.  Previous to this he worked for TDG and Wincanton.

DHL Supply Chain has extended its contract with Philips Consumer Lifestyle for a further 3 years.  DHL Supply Chain manages the warehouse at Torsvik, Sweden and distribution.

Kuehne & Nagel has won a 5 year contract with The Colomer Group.  Kuehne & Nagel will consolidate all logistics operations for Central Europe at its distribution centre in Biebesheim, near Darmstadt (Germany) and also carry out distribution to professional hair salons across Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxumbourg and The Netherlands and Switzerland at a later stage.

The Delamode Group has completed the sale of its Romanian Contract Logistics division to Keswick Enterprises.