At Johnston Logistics UK we provide a full range of professional 3rd party logistics (3PL) services from our 130-acre site in Snetterton, Norfolk. We pride ourselves in making sure all our customers receive a truly first class and personal service. Our whole team is dedicated to having a ‘can do’ attitude and demonstrate this on a daily basis. Our customers see us as an extension of their operations rather than an external supplier.
In this blog we take a look at one of our longest standing customer relationships – Broadland Wineries.
Broadland Wineries is an international wine supplier producing, importing and supplying branded and private-label wines to UK, North American and Nordic markets. They provide wine buyers with superior service, quality and value through their flexibility, innovation, reliability and efficiency. The company continues to grow, with a 20% per annum rate achieved on average from 2006 to 2016.
In 2006 Broadland Wineries were looking to maximize operational efficiencies. They were running their own 6 warehouses across different locations in Norfolk (including their own full warehouse at their winery in Cawston, Norfolk). Due to Johnston Logistics UK’s excellent location (south west of Norwich with close proximity to the A11 dual carriageway), large bonded storage capacity and fully flexible/scalable offering, Broadland Wineries decided to consolidate their external warehousing needs with us.
The main reasons for choosing to handover the warehousing to Johnston Logistics UK were:
- To consolidate external warehousing to one large, efficient, trusted partner.
- To create a variable cost model – where costs vary depending on Broadland Wineries’ sales volumes and revenue.
- To offer a 100% accurate, secure, scalable and reliable service.
To continue to develop the close working relationship formed with Broadland Wineries, in 2008 Johnston’s decided to invest in a Delta Bond system and align it with their own warehouse management system. This involved additional costs associated with the functionality of the systems. Johnston Logistics UK have also became registered with HMRC which was a costly process as guarantees had to be in place for four years. However, the work we had already achieved with Broadland Wineries over the previous year set a solid base for this investment which allows them to offer a complete excise bonded service to Broadland Wineries and other clients.
Over the years the two companies have continually worked together, expanding and developing their IT solutions and systems. They’ve worked hand-in-hand to develop new systems that now integrate seamlessly. This close working relationship has allowed both companies to develop an outstanding level of trust and confidence in the service that’s provided, ultimately allowing both companies to grow from strength to strength.
Both companies have evolved together over the last 10 years with Broadland Wineries is now in its 51st year of trading and Richard Johnston Ltd for 36 years.
“We know we can rely on Johnston Logistics UK and we have built up a strong working relationship together. We can really count on the accuracy and reliability of the service we receive from Johnston Logistics UK.” John Kingsmill Finance Director, Broadland Wineries
“We see our business relationship very much as a partnership, with their storage facility being treated as an extension of our own premises. Johnston’s has been flexible, reliable and dependable in meeting our ever-increasing storage requirement.” Ray Swain, Warehouse, Broadland Wineries
As the two companies continue working together in the future, there will be further integration between systems and procedures. Both companies have met British Retail Consortium (BRC) standards – with Broadland Wineries achieving BRC AA status and Johnston Logistics UK achieving BRC Storage and Distribution Certification. This leading global safety and quality certification programme ensures businesses fulfil their legal obligations and provides protection for the end customer.
With Broadland Wineries looking to target international growth, both companies are applying for Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) status. This is an internationally recognised quality mark demonstrating a company’s role that the international supply chain is secure, and that its controls and procedures are efficient and compliant for full traceability of goods. This is just another way the two companies continue to work closely together to provide a completely flexible, agile and scalable logistics solution for Broadland Wineries.
