Europe’s leading ice manufacturer supplier, The Ice Co., is celebrating after its Supply Chain & Logistics Teams won gold at this year’s British Frozen Food Federation’s (BFFF) People Awards, which took place on Thursday 16th June.
The awards, which celebrate the unsung heroes in the frozen food industry, recognised both teams’ hard work over the past year, as well as their dedication to consistently coming up with innovative solutions to improve the whole supply chain operation.
Proactive thinking helped The Ice Co. maintain service throughout the pandemic and a post-Brexit situation. In prior years the company used a number of 3rd party storage suppliers, but then 2021 marked the first year they had control of their own 20k pallet cold store entirely dedicated to ice. This eliminated reliance on 3rd party storage and gave The Ice Co. complete control of the supply chain through to the point of customer order.
To run the new operation, the business took on a new team of 28 at the beginning of 2021 – the ‘Top Bank Team’, who quickly expanded their skillset to fill the gaps of the previous operation. Their efforts, coupled with the Logistics Team’s implementation of seven-day-a-week processing (as opposed to the previous five) and the joint implementation of a 24/7 fleet operation has earned the team recognition from their biggest customer, Tesco.
As a result of the hard work of the Supply Chain & Logistics Teams, Tesco has seen an increase in sales in summer 2021 versus 2020. This was an outstanding achievement given the supply challenges seen across the food industry, which led to the retailer awarding The Ice Co. a ‘Tesco Values Award’ in 2021.
Polly Metcalfe, Managing Director at The Ice Co., commented: “I’m delighted that our entire Supply & Logistics Teams has been recognised for their hard work by these prestigious awards, which are integral to raising awareness of the industry’s unsung heroes in our category.
“We couldn’t have such a successful business without our dedicated team, so we hope these awards continue to motivate and inspire them, and others. The achievements of The Ice Co. is a collective team effort, as this award win has proved!”
For more information on the The Ice Co., visit www.theiceco.co.uk.