Logistics Manager Magazine

Mondelez World Travel Retail has completed a 14 month consolidation of its distribution centres in Europe, completing the integration of Cadbury and boosting supply chain efficiency.

Operations at the Modelez WTR Villmergen distribution centre in Switzerland and the former Cadbury distribution centre in Veghel, Netherlands have been merged into Villmergen under Project Forward, which the company describes as the biggest logistics and supply chain challenge it has tackled in its 20 year history.

The company said consolidation provided a platform for it to fulfil its “One Order – One Delivery – One Invoice” promise to partners.

The upgraded Villmergen facility, which is operated by Swiss logistics company Planzer, provides storage capacity of 21,000 pallets. It has a maximum outbound capacity of ten 40ft overseas containers plus 40 trucks, and a maximum inbound capacity of 20 full truck loads from 31 factories across Europe.

The company said the key benefits are greater order flexibility and improved order frequency per brand, with customers able to ‘mix-and-match’ brands in a single container; increased order sizes and optimized container utilization; and maximised on-shelf availability and reduced stock-holding requirements

Other benefits include: streamlining of administration and paperwork, and harmonization of delivery terms.

Jens-Ulf Hinze, manager of customer supply chain & innovation at Mondelez WTR, said: “To have completed such an extensive consolidation project in such a short timescale and with no reported impact on service levels to our customers is a great testament to everyone involved. In order for our ‘Delighting Travelers’ category vision to continue gaining traction, we understand that Mondelez WTR must be a good partner to do business with and this project clearly supports this drive. We now have a more reliable and flexible order-fulfilment system and a far more robust platform for supporting growth in our travel retail business moving forward.”

The project also allows MWTR to carry out end-to-end supply chain efficiency reviews with select partners such as World Duty Free.

Justin Suter, global head of supply chain at World Duty Free Group, said: “We have been very impressed with the way Mondelez WTR has handled this process and with the quality of service they are now set to deliver. We experienced no delivery issues before, during or after the transfer, which is a significant achievement and testament to Mondelez’s detailed planning and collaborative approach. With the new simplified systems and improved infrastructure in place we are now working together on an end-to-end supply chain review, with a view to being even more efficient and effective in how we work together.”

Transition tasks in Project Forward included manual container loading, labelling, co-packing, updating of Import/Export documentation, customer/portfolio specific knowledge transfer, transfer of 1400 pallets of stock within four weeks, and integration of highly complex IT systems and data.