The Frozen Food Wholesaler's Dream Team - Central Foods and Norbert Dentressangle
Central Foods is the frozen food wholesaler’s wholesaler, within the foodservice marketplace. Established in 1996, the company has grown from a zero base to supplying over 28,000 cases each week – cases delivered on their behalf by Norbert Dentressangle.
Central Foods has been working with Norbert Dentressangle since 2007 and has just renewed their contract again. Previous to this, the company had grown increasingly frustrated with its incumbent storage and distribution supplier and so decided to make the change. After reviewing the marketplace and its major players, it was clear one company stood out – Norbert Dentressangle. The decision to appoint Norbert Dentressangle was not solely based on price: professionalism, high levels of service and the company’s business ethos all persuaded Central Foods they were the company to appoint.
It was very important to Central Foods to be able to follow on from Norbert Dentressangle’s example and offer their own customers the high levels of service that the foodservice industry, quite rightly, demands. Norbert Dentressangle acts as Central Foods’ “eyes and ears” – checking goods on receipt for goods intake quality: pallet overhangs, case compressions, damaged pallets, badly sealed boxes, short date life,temperature etc. They then maintain the goods in the cold store, too. The company also offers a “Day 1 for Day 3” consolidation facility across the UK, servicing in excess of 225 distribution points on Central Foods’ behalf.
Current service levels are running at 99.6% and have been above 99% consistently since the acquisition of the Chrisitan Salvesen business into the Norbert Dentressangle group. The transition from incumbent to Norbert Dentressangle was handled by a dedicated project team who handled everything from custom IT requirements to stock transfer, training and communication. One service in particular was of especial interest to Central Foods – the high level of IT expertise. This enabled customisations to be made to allow the interface between Norbert Dentressangle and Central Foods to run smoothly. Regular meetings were held in the run-up to the transfer and subsequently afterwards to ensure a smooth hand-over. Monthly meetings continue, to assess and monitor any business change requirements/improvements necessary to take the business closer to a 100% service level.
Since the transfer to Norbert Dentressangle, Central Foods has consistently grown its business with the company and now has approaching 30 suppliers/clients taking advantage of its consolidation service. Gordon Lauder, Managing Director of Central Foods said, “The benefits to Central Foods of being able to consolidate across its range of over 300 products onto a minimum, single mixed pallet, twice weekly, has helped grow the company significantly and Norbert Dentressangle has played a key role in this success.”
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