A contract renewal for warehousing and distribution management is the latest development in a significant, seven-year partnership between supply chain and logistics leader Imperial Logistics and premium chocolate producer Lindt & Sprüngli.
Recognised as a global market leader, the Lindt & Sprüngli group offers a wide selection of products in more than 120 countries around the world. “Imperial Logistics is proud to have played a role in Lindt’s South African success story since 2011, and this contract renewal represents our commitment to constantly meeting our client’s exacting, world class quality standards, and to continuously innovating, improving and expanding our capabilities, in order to better meet Lindt’s needs,” comments Imperial Logistics chief strategy officer Cobus Rossouw.
“Our client applies the most stringent standards to everything that goes into delivering the finest quality chocolate, and ensures that its uncompromising quality standards are met along its entire supply chain, by all its suppliers and service providers, from the raw materials to the finished product in the hands of the consumer. The supply chain requirements to ensure the quality of this temperature sensitive product are complex, and we are as invested as Lindt is in safeguarding the treasured quality of its products all the way to the homes of consumers.”
The solutions that Imperial Logistics provides to Lindt include reefer container inbound handling, warehousing, outbound transport and distribution and reverse logistics. The value added Imperial Logistics capabilities that enhance this partnership include co-packing services such as labelling, unpacking products down to the consumer units, kitting, repacking and display building.
Since winning its first Lindt contract seven years ago, Imperial Logistics’ partnership with the confectionery leader has gone from strength to strength. “Imperial Logistics proved then that it has the capabilities, infrastructure and commitment to quality to meet Lindt & Sprüngli’s exacting standards. Since the inception of our partnership, we have not rested on our laurels, and have strived for continuous improvement aimed at delivering service enhancements and cost savings, and ensuring that our client maintains its high quality standards and market leading position,” Rossouw stresses.
Imperial Logistics has invested in temperature controlled vehicles throughout the supply chain, to ensure that the quality of Lindt & Sprüngli’s superior, temperature sensitive products are never compromised. All warehouses, including receiving and distribution facilities are temperature controlled throughout. Double-rack trailers that have been incorporated into Imperial Logistics’ dedicated Lindt fleet are delivering cost savings.
Imperial Logistics undertakes continuous staff training, to ensure awareness and understanding of the sensitivity of Lindt’s products. The co-packing undertaken for Lindt enhances employees’ knowledge of the products, processes and specific requirements. “Co-packing was a new business capability that Imperial Logistics was only beginning to explore, but in our partnership with Lindt, it has proved to be a resounding success,” notes Rossouw.
“Collaboration, persistence and the establishment of a true partnership between Imperial Logistics and Lindt & Sprüngli is the key to this seven-year-long success story, and it continues to deliver positive results,” Rossouw concludes.
