Supply Chain and Logistics Group Cleans Up Truck Contract Again

UK – US – GERMANY – The measure of a supply chain management group is not the amount of new business it can garner, something which often simply indicates the strength of the sales force, but the ability to retain existing business in the face of intense opposition from rival freight forwarders and logistics groups. December seems to have been a good month for one such 3PL as Ceva announce the retention of two contracts, each of which bear household names.

In the UK, the company has retained a multi-million euro contract with Vileda, one of Europe’s leading cleaning brand and house cleaning solutions providers. Under the renewed contract which runs to 2018, CEVA will continue to provide Vileda with warehousing and transportation services, in addition to the receipt and management of raw materials and products, re-packing services, and the storage of spare parts in the UK. At its warehouse facility in Corby, Northamptonshire Ceva stores over seven hundred lines equating to around 5,300 pallets at any one time.

In addition, the logistics company also assembles 100 different product lines from over 275,000 raw components before dispatching around 350 orders per week, equating to around 2.7 million cases per annum and provides product receipt, stock management, supplier collections and label production as part of the commitment to the customer. This extension comes following the news in September that the two groups had extended their fourteen year partnership in Turkey which Ceva handles at its new 70,000 square metre distribution hub in Gebze.

Over in the US, Ceva has renewed its contract to supply a range of logistics functions to an even more prestigious name, working in harmony with Ford’s Truck Assembly Plant in Louisville, Kentucky where Ceva has acted as a Material Service Centre provider for the motor manufacturer for the past five years and Ceva operations will include metering inbound materials, small lot logistics, return container management and just in time transportation to and from the plant.

Since opening in 1969, the factory has produced over seven million vehicles and currently manufactures the Ford F-250, F-350, F-450 and F-550 Super Duty pickup trucks as well as the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator. CEVA will be investing in improvements to current facilities and additional equipment at the plant to better serve Ford’s requirements. Also in support of Ford, Ceva has invested in new facilities in Kansas City, adjacent to its existing facility, as well as adding more than sixty jobs to the Kansas City area from last August.

Meanwhile the supply chain management group continues to develop its commitment to the logistics required by healthcare providers. With the commissioning of a new mezzanine at its regional distribution centre in Leipzig, which operates solely for medical equipment manufacturer Medtronic, the logistics company reasserts the efforts to service the sector which have seen the development of the City of Pharma in Stradella, Italy and the healthcare hub in Miami which it opened in August.

In Leipzig the introduction of new product lines, as well as higher volumes of the existing product range, made an extension of capacity with the introduction of the mezzanine necessary, effectively doubling the warehousing space to 14,000 square metres. The centre is the base from which 13,000 Medtronic medical devices are distributed throughout Germany and to twenty five other countries.