Throughout December our business activity increases as we support the demands of our customers in the festive period.

We delivered high volumes of seasonal products for all customers as well as provided a Christmas operation for one of our largest customers. The result is millions of product moved across the country for the major retailers and food service outlets and a dedicated Gist team working and performing to their best.

Customer Food to Order (CFTO)

This year, our dedicated CFTO operations ran from four separate consolidation sites across the UK and Ireland, with a total of 183,000 trays moving through the operation during December:

Our teams adapted plans and processes to ensure product was accurately picked and out-loaded to the highest standard, delivering within industry-leading time frames. All trays were 100% accuracy-scanned to ensure each store received its correct orders.

Product volume

Within the final five days on the run up to Christmas day, we delivered 9,981 loads to 982 locations through our customer network. An impressive 6.7 million trays were picked and processed, culminating in our largest peak volume day into store (23 December) processing 1.5 million trays.

This included over:

• 1.1 million turkeys
• 27.5 million individual Brussel sprouts
• 34 million mince pies

Our enabling functions supported our operational teams to ensure peak was seamless in execution.

Our Primary depots across the UK managed a significant uplift in customer volumes as we met or surpassed our customers’ expectations.

Key to a successful Peak

The key to our success has always, and will always be, our people. Every supply chain business has access to the same vehicles and systems, but it’s what we do with these that really add value to our customers and their customers.

Following our business expansion in 2016, we are now well placed to embed new sites, teams and contracts as we look further ahead into the New Year. We are looking forward to continue developing our business to the benefit of both our customers and our people.