Soft drinks company Britvic has announced that its national distribution centre in Lutterworth, Leicestershire, has reopened following an investment of £25 million in upgrading the site.
Britvic recently invested an additional £20m, on top of the £5m committed to the Lutterworth site over the past three years, in the site. This has resulted in significant improvements and updates to the technical systems and facilities necessary for efficient warehouse and logistical operations, Britvic says.
Logistics Manager recently paid a visit to GLP’s Magna Park Lutterworth, where Britvic’s national distribution centre is located, to learn about what’s being done on-site in terms of ESG and renewable energy at modern logistics facilities.
Keep an eye out for a property feature in the September issue of Logistics Manager to find out more.
This investment saw the installation of 17 new automatic cranes, 18 despatch lanes to load lorries from and 20 automated cars to transport pallets around the warehouse. The manufacturer claims that, thanks to this automation, its Lutterworth facility now has the the capacity to move 600 pallets an hour from the warehouse to its customers.
Nigel Paine, supply chain director at Britvic, commented: “I am delighted that we have completed the renovation of our national distribution centre in Lutterworth.
“This cutting-edge facility enables us to continue offering our customers the wide range of Britvic products they love, while also providing our employees with a dynamic work environment that supports their best performance.”
Britvic notes that over the course of a normal year, 75,000 trucks carrying 1.9 million pallets to over 900 locations pass through the distribution centre’s security gatehouse. It believes that this investment ‘will see more trucks through the gates to accommodate the increased pallet numbers’.
In addition to the new automated systems, the renovation has resulted in refurbished office and meeting spaces, plus the installation of 10 new electric vehicle charging stations, including a 47kW Direct Current fast charger.
This is the latest in a string of investments in Britvic’s supply chain, with the company having invested £40 million in its Rugby factory over the past two years, including in the installation of a fifth canning line.
In June 2024, Logistics Manager visited Britvic’s Rugby site to find out more about the company’s supply chain and its manufacturing and logistics operations.
For more insight into how technology such as AI and machine learning has led to improvements in Britvic’s production lines, check out this feature from the July issue of Logistics Manager.
An additional £8 million was invested in a heat recovery system at its Beckton factory in London, which it says has ‘cut factory emissions by an estimated 1,200 tonnes annually’.
This latest investment announcement follows the news in July 2024 that the board of Britvic reached an agreement on the terms of a recommended cash offer from Carlsberg for the firm’s acquisition, making the decision to ‘recommend unanimously that Britvic shareholders vote in favour of the scheme’.
