At the Captain's table

Birds Eye has reduced its average trip costs by 10% during the past year through outsourcing its equipment management to CHEP. Servicing the Birds Eye business involves the CHEP Equipment Management (CEM) team organising over 550,000 CHEP pallet movements a year.

CEM uses a bespoke software system which constantly analyses Birds Eye's supply chain and spots any anomalies so that immediate action can be taken. This also helps Birds Eye to deal with sudden and dramatic increases in demand, such as when the UK pea harvest reaches its peak. This period - between June- August every year - can see up to 12,000 pallets issued in a week.

Neil Mason, head of distribution at Birds Eye, said: "CEM really operates as an extension to my own team. The CEM team works tirelessly in the background, validating and double checking all the pallet movements on and off our account.

The team has provided an excellent service since we have outsourced this function and there has definitely been a significant benefit in terms of improved efficiency, while also minimising pallet losses."