SmurfittKappa (SKYate) of Yate, near Bristol, is a modern packaging manufacturer producing 90 million m² of corrugate every year. Manufacture is a 24 hour, seven day a week operation, serving customers who expect a high quality, just-in-time delivery service.

WHT have been responsible for SKYate’s distribution since 1992. This is not a ‘back-door’ operation; WHT have three management personnel based on the premises at Yate, integrating seamlessly into SKYate’s structure.

Embedded management team
Paul Wright, WHT’s contract manager, attends daily planning meetings with representatives of production and sales, while WHT’s Roger Melhuish pre-books all deliveries with SKYate’s customers the day before delivery. Once the delivery plan is set Paul takes responsibility for ‘pulling’ orders through to despatch rather than waiting for the goods to be loaded. Having said that, the original plan rarely survives intact through to the day of delivery, whether due to emerging late or urgent orders, or production log-jams; the environment is always flexible and dynamic.

Uncompromising service commitment
WHT’s philosophy is to look for the minimum-cost solution, without deviating from SKYate’s commitment never to compromise on customer service.

Organisational initiatives
For local work, WHT run a core fleet of eight articulated units with trailers in SKYate livery. Longer distance deliveries are sub-contracted to a team of stringently selected partner carriers. Costs are examined weekly to ensure that the balance between core fleet and sub-contract is correct. Together with SKYate staff, initiatives have been undertaken to ensure that transport considerations have a high profile within the organisation. Campaigns are mounted to persuade customers to accept weekend and night-time deliveries. This, combined with paper reel collections and waste disposal at night, ensures that the core fleet is always kept busy, making optimal use of the company’s investment and assets.

This approach has made the SKYate distribution operation the most cost-effective in the group.