Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

The CEVA network already handles a range of grocery items for other leading brand manufacturers including Twinings, Wrigleys, Golden Wonder and Del Monte and also offers primary consolidation centre facilities to leading multiple retailers Tesco and Somerfield.

The products, primarily from John West’s own canning factories in the Seychelles, Ghana and Portugal, come into the UK via the Port of Felixstowe where Newsfast already operates an import centre.

About 3,500 sea containers a year, an average of 14 a day, will be handled through Newsfast’s Mendlesham site with the company’s port operation providing additional support during peak periods of activity.

“We will store up to 16,000 pallets at Mendlesham and we have recently completed an investment programme at the site involving the setting up of a dedicated re-packing operation for the contract as well as a quality control laboratory where John West QC staff will be based,” said CEVA Newsfast’s managing director, David Bermingham.

The new contract follows last year’s £290m acquisition by Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking from HJ Heinz of John West – the UK’s leading brand of canned canned tuna and fish – and other leading European seafood brands, Petit Navire of France and Mareblu in Italy.

The sale prompted a reassessment of the way the supply chain operated for John West products, which are currently handled through the Heinz central warehouse at Wigan.

“Both the producers and the retailers find we can offer the end to end solution, the service quality and, just as importantly, the cost efficiencies they need. We also help reduce congestion on the road and at the retailers’ RDCs by consolidating goods within our network,” added Bermingham.

Ian Meadows, John West’s managing director, said: “Excellent customer service is fundamental to the success of John West’s business. In CEVA Newsfast I am confident we have found a partner which will be able to use the scale of its distribution network and experience of handling imported food products, at the same time as having the flexibility to develop tailor-made solutions for our specific needs.”