Companies on the Brackmills Industrial Estate in Northampton are joining forces to cut logistics costs.
Brackmills is home to the likes of Travis Perkins, Panasonic, John Lewis, Coca Cola, Great Bear and Stanley Black & Decker. All are active members of the Brackmills Procurement Group, which was set up to develop money saving initiatives.
Danielle Kozlowska, Process Improvement Manager at Stanley Black & Decker, who chairs the group said: “The first thing our Procurement Group is doing is exploring group pallet buying. So many Brackmills companies buy pallets and individually negotiate prices. By joining forces and group buying we aim to strengthen the estate’s purchasing power and drive costs down for companies based here.
“Crucially, smaller companies on the estate will be able to piggy back on this and save money which could prove essential to survival during these challenging times.”
The group has set itself environmental targets for 2012 and is exploring estate-wide initiatives such as water harvesting, business clothing recycling and the use of bio-diesel. Other initiatives the group will be focusing on this year include; transport sharing, packaging, security provision and employee benefits.
“Since Brackmills became a Business Improvement District nearly three years ago the sense of corporate community and co-operation among neighbouring companies has soared,” said Kozlowska. We want to encourage more businesses to move on to the estate and the Procurement Group is one of many committees on the estate which is doing and achieving exciting things.”
