One such company benefiting from Exel’s innovative supply chain thinking is Selfridges, the leading UK department store retailer.

With 9,000-plus products available – from office furniture and large laser printers to pencils and other small consumables – there are also a wide variety of demand levels, some products turning much faster than others.

In planning a project one overarching goal was reducing the amount spent on procurement by 30% in three years.

We appear to be collecting more and more information about our buying habits through loyalty cards. We gather probably ten times more information on our customers’ needs than we ever did.

While some of this volume will be made up of smaller units, it comes as little surprise that the vast majority of the space is in the form of large, empty sheds. We see them from our trunk roads – huge warehouses that have been erected in weeks, only to r

We must work harder to attract new blood into logistics – make it appear to the young as the attractive, interesting, important profession that it is.

This seems like a win-win situation. Certainly in the US, retailers have been moving their distribution centres close to ports for some time.

The FTA has described Transport for London’s initial ideas for a London-wide Low Emission Zone (LEZ) as a “hammer to crack a nut”.

Mammoet Ferry Transport (MFT) has extended its high specification box trailers to include a new striking white livery.

Co-operative Retail Logistics (CRL), part of the Co-operative Group (CWS), has fitted 700 of its distribution vehicles with Secureseal’s tamper-proof trailer seals.