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Bize Size Blog: Supply Chain Management

Thursday, August 04, 2016 - 13:19

Supply Chain Management (SCM) is used by all major food and drink companies in the logistics department. It plays an important role in getting the food and drink from its raw form to a finished product to be bought on the shelf.

The supply process involves raw materials such as farmer’s crops or cow’s milk which is then sent to a manufacturing plant to be made into something else or to have other ingredients added. The wholesaler step is an optional one for small food companies which can be avoided to cut down company costs, but generally wholesalers sell on the goods to other businesses that buy the products in bulk. After that, retailing the product occurs where they sell directly to the customer from a food store. Finally, the customer buys the finished food or drink product.

Muller Yogurt follows a similar supply chain process as mentioned above. Their suppliers are Dairy Crest who Muller UK bought in 2015 so that the supply could be managed internally and exclusively by Muller UK. Dairy Crest supplies the milk so it can then be manufactured in Shropshire where there is a yoghurt production plant that Muller also own. Wholesalers such as Sidwell buy Muller Yogurt in bulk and sell it to other businesses. This is known as B2B sales. Eventually, the Yogurt reaches retailers in stores such as Tesco and Sainsbury’s. The customer then has many options of how to buy the product. Customers can click and collect online, go into the large stores or pop into a local store anywhere in the UK. 

For more information on Supply Chain roles, click here!