WH Smith, the high-street retailer, has reaffirmed its commitment to a collaborative approach to high street deliveries by extending its contract with Wincanton for a further three years.
The operation involves shared high street deliveries and splitting costs among more than 30 other retailers and manufacturers – cutting costs and reducing carbon emissions.
David McKinlay, supply chain director at WH Smith, said the extension to the collaborative transport agreement reflected how Wincanton had “reframed” WH Smith’s transport model to cut costs and carbon emissions.
“With an increase in store locations and aggressive fuel inflation, we needed a different type of relationship that would create a step-change in the way we were use transport,” he said.
“Wincanton has met this challenge head on and created significant economies of scale by combining our transport operations with those of over 30 other retailers and manufacturers.”
The contract covers Wincanton’s work for WH Smith hubs in Swindon, Dunstable and Birmingham, as well as Wincanton‘s own multi-user depots in Middleton, near Manchester, and Mossend in Scotland.
Wincanton uses a fleet of 22 tractor units, 52 trailers and 47 rigids to serve some 1,000 WH Smith stores in the UK and Ireland.