United Kingdom – Bakers Basco has entered into an agreement with Allied Bakeries that will see them managing the recovery of the bakers’ own bread baskets and wheeled dollies whenever they fall outside of the usual supply chain routes.
Bakers Basco was set up in 2006 by five of the UK’s leading plant bakers to manage the flow of millions of the industry’s bread baskets that are used for transporting bread up and down the country. Today the scheme manages more than 55% of the UK’s bakery basket stock. National bakers typically also hold and manage their own stock of baskets.
Bakers Basco Will Report Whereabouts of Allied Bakeries Equipment
Under the terms of the new agreement, Bakers Basco’s National Investigations Team will report the whereabouts of any of Allied Bakeries’ own equipment that they may come across while recovering their own stock. Bakers Basco will also take the lead on any negotiations or litigation related to the recovery of the equipment.
Richard Hodgson, Director of Logistics for Allied Bakeries and Board Director of Bakers Basco, comments: “We already know the many benefits of the Bakers Basco scheme so it was only a matter of time before we extended our agreement with them to include them taking on investigations and recovery of our own bread baskets and dollies. Like Bakers Basco, we want to repatriate our equipment as efficiently as possible, saving on costs and ultimately reducing the environmental impact of equipment going missing.”
Whether bread baskets go missing because they’ve simply been held up at supermarkets, or because they’ve been taken and used without permission, their absence leads to massive disruption to the supply chain and day-to-day operations.
Lost and misappropriated bread baskets are the Achilles’ heel of the baking industry with typical losses exceeding 60% and, in extreme cases, 100%. However, since the introduction of new GPS tracking technologies and a dedicated National Investigations Team, Bakers Basco has made significant progress in investigating and recovering equipment.
Paul Empson, general manager at Bakers Basco, adds: “Our national operations and investigations teams are up and down the country on a daily basis tracking and recovering our own Omega equipment and will often come across equipment belonging to other bakers. So it absolutely makes sense that we are taking on responsibility for investigating Allied Bakeries equipment too. The only way we, as an industry, can stamp out this issue is by working together and, working more closely on behalf of Allied Bakeries, I’m confident we’ll see a marked improvement in Investigation efforts.”
The announcement comes after Bakers Basco reported a 230% increase in 2021/22 recoveries versus pre-pandemic levels – the result of more streamlined and strategic operations across the business. Bakers Basco recently announced the appointment of ex-police officer Stacey Brown as National Investigations Manager to spearhead these activities.
About Bakers Basco
Bakers Basco was set up in 2006 by five of the UK’s leading plant bakers including Allied Bakeries, Fine Lady Bakeries, Frank Roberts & Sons, Hovis and Warburtons – representing more than 55% of the bakery market in the UK – to buy, manage and monitor the use of a standard basket for the delivery of bread to retailers and wholesalers.
The company currently manages an equipment pool of approximately five million sturdy, reusable Omega Baskets and 500,000 dollies, which are part of the ‘circular economy’ – designed to last many years, with each piece of kit recycled potentially 400 times and the resulting raw plastic used to make more baskets before it reaches the end of its useful life. Find out more at http://bakersbasco.com/.