Food firm adapts to the Brexit challenge

With four sites across the UK and 25 years of experience of supplying dairy ingredients and inclusions to food manufacturers and foodservice customers, Meadow Foods offers supply of dairy ingredients 365 days a year. In order to continue ‘business as usual’ post-Brexit, Descartes’ e-Customs solution will support Meadow Foods to manage an estimated ten-fold increase in export declarations to Europe.

Gary Marshall, IT director, Meadow Foods, says: “While there has been much uncertainty around Brexit and the implications that it will have on businesses, one thing we do know is that the number of mandatory customs declarations will increase. As an organisation that regularly exports to Europe and Ireland, preparing ahead of time for an anticipated ten-fold increase in export customs entries was essential to ensure that we prevent any unnecessary supply chain hold-ups and thereby maintain our excellent customer relationships and reputation. With such an increase to the expected volume of export entries, it became clear that it wouldn’t be efficient to continue with our previous manual process, nor did we want to lose control over the process by outsourcing to a third party. Another huge benefit to deploying Descartes’ e-Customs solution is the ability to interface with our ExportMaster ShipShape system, offering us a way of streamlining the process in-house, saving both costs and time.”

Pol Sweeney, VP sales and business manager UK for Descartes adds: “We know that Brexit is bringing supply chain disruption throughout 2021, but installing Descartes’ e-Customs solution will help to minimise business inefficiencies that are within Meadow Foods’ control, such as the complicated import and export customs declarations process. A large proportion of Meadow Foods’ business involves exporting into Ireland, and our e-Customs solution will enable Meadow Foods to efficiently navigate the customs road that lays ahead.”

For more information, visit www.descartes.com