Fowler Welch and Dairy Crest plc have officially launched a 10 year multi-million-pound strategic partnership for storage and logistics at the dairy company’s national distribution centre (NDC).

Under the partnership, which went live on 6 June, Fowler Welch has taken over transport operations at Dairy Crest’s state of the art NDC at Bermuda Park, Nuneaton.

The ambient, chilled and FMCG supply chain specialist, is also working with Dairy Crest to maximise the capacity of the site as a strategic chilled foods storage and distribution facility for manufacturers and retailers throughout the Midlands. In addition, part of the NDC will continue to be used for Dairy Crest’s Cathedral City and Country Life brands.

The impressive Nuneaton site is equipped with automated putaway and retrieval systems and with 12,000 pallet locations has capacity for a throughput of 70 million cases a year.

The distribution centre will form part of Fowler Welch’s national network solution, enabling the FMCG supply-chain operator to provide added-value services to manufacturers and growers in the Midlands.

Commenting on the link-up Fowler Welch managing director, Nick Hay said: "We have worked with Dairy Crest to develop a unique solution that will allow both companies to maximise the value of the site. It is a clear demonstration of our philosophy of listening, responding and delivering.

"This is a major milestone for us as we will have achieved our strategic goal of having a logistics platform in the Midlands offering manufacturers and growers national reach to all retailers on a shared-user basis."

Source: Fowler Welch