Yearsley Group has been announced as the preferred UK provider of frozen logistics for CSM, the world's largest bakery supplier. Following a competitive tender, the 10,000 pallet contract will see CSM store more than 300 finished frozen products with Yearsley Group, including a variety of brands of cookies, muffins, brownies and doughnuts from November 2012.
All collections will be from CSM's factory at Bromborough on the Wirral and stored at Yearsley Group's Heywood cold store before being distributed to retailers nationwide.
Tim Moran, Cold Storage & Distribution Sales Director at Yearsley Group said: "We're delighted to have secured this contact to provide CSM with all of its UK frozen storage requirements. As with all of our customers, we will assign a dedicated customer service team and develop a bespoke collection and delivery programme that fits in with both CSM and its customers' needs. Although we will consolidate CSM stock at Heywood, our national network of cold stores will allow us distribute it quickly and effectively anywhere in the UK.
We were already working closely with CSM, having won the contract for their business with Tesco in Ireland and Cookie Man business from our Coleshill depot. This allowed us to demonstrate our service and expertise and opened the door to bringing on board their entire storage operation."
Consolidating stock from CSM's Bromborough site at the Heywood store also provides CSM access to Yearsley Group's picking and repacking facilities. A section of the cold store will be dedicated to order picking for CSM customers, while the repack department will offer new packing formats to be considered.
CSM, formerly known as BakeMark in the UK, is a global supplier of bakery products and employs more than 9,700 people around the world. It operates six sites in the UK, and supplies finished products to most of the UK's major multiples and catering organisations.
Danny Martin, European Planning & Logistics Manager from CSM added: "As the world's largest bakery products supplier, our logistics partner plays an enormously important role in our operations, so it was critical for us to find the right team. Yearsley Group are a proven quality service provider who satisfied our requirement for providing deliveries into our customers 24/7, meeting extremely short lead times, and providing additional services such as repacking and order picking which will benefit our customers greatly."
The deal is one of several new contracts for Yearsley Group, creating demand for new space within the Group's storage operation. Work is well underway on the expansion of its Heywood headquarters, with the first 100,000 sq ft of a 160,000 sq ft unit being constructed within the next year, boosting pallet capacity by 27,000. Ultimately the new cold store will double Heywood's existing 40,000 pallet capacity and enabling the company to create its northern 'superhub' where stock will be consolidated from a wide range of different suppliers, for more efficient delivery. This consolidation strategy forms part of Yearsley Group's forward plan which has seen the recent launch of the Global Logistics platform (including freight forwarding) and provision of an ambient storage and distribution offering from its Grimsby depot, providing additional services for existing and new customers.