Britvic renews distribution deal with Wincanton

Britvic Soft Drinks has extended its contract with leading supply chain solutions provider, Wincanton for a further three years. The extension means Wincanton will continue to operate Britvic’s national distribution centre in Lutterworth, Leicestershire.

The deal between Britvic and Wincanton extends a partnership between the two businesses, which has lasted 20 years.

Wincanton operates a dedicated factory clearance operation, in the form of a shuttle between the Rugby factory and Lutterworth – transporting 44 million cases per year – and an automated centre with a throughput of 82 million cases per year.

In addition, it is upgrading the site architecture and technology to improve throughput and increase automation. An on-site energy consumption system has also been installed to reduce the impact of operations on the environment.

In last year’s July heatwave, the distribution centre’s team put a total of 17.6 million cases through the site. At peak, that was 400 vehicles and 10,096 pallets in one day – a record high to match the temperatures!

Chris Kingshott, managing director for manufacturing at Wincanton, said: “We are delighted to be extending our relationship with Britvic.

“The soft drinks market has evolved considerably since we started working with Britvic in 1994, and we have continuously updated, evolved and improved our service to meet market demand. The heatwave last July was an exceptional challenge, but due to our flexibility and capability to quickly scale up our operations, we helped Britvic capitalise on one of its busiest periods in recent years.”