A fruitful partnership

Published - Friday, 07 October, 2011

Supplymanagement.com publishes Cawleys and Adelie supplier relationship management award.

"When Adelie Food Holdings wanted to achieve the goal of sending zero waste to landfill, it turned to Cawleys – and the strong relationship meant a successful outcome"

"This year’s winners were Adelie Food Holdings and Cawleys, which built a successful relationship that achieved Adelie’s goal of sending zero waste to landfill, one year ahead of schedule. Adelie was established by private equity firm Duke Street in 2006, and Cawleys, a family-owned business, has been trading for 60 years. The collaboration between the two companies was estimated to have saved one million kilos of carbon dioxide and provided annual savings of 23 per cent.

The project began when the procurement team at Adelie was given a target to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill from 10,000 tonnes to zero by 2012. Managing waste involved 31 different contractors, with 100 different contracts resulting in more than 650 invoices each year. As well as the waste reduction target, additional goals of simplifying the supply chain, saving money and improving processes were also set.

The key decision was to treat waste management as a strategic category requiring proper analysis, rather than as a routine purchase. Choosing a supplier with the right culture to make the relationship successful was vital. Even the company’s occupational psychologist was drafted in to assist with relationship workshops to see if the firms could work together.

After Cawleys were selected as the provider and the two companies had agreed joint goals, the “Ready Steady Green!” (RSG) scheme was launched in 2010. The focus of the programme was engaging staff at Adelie sites across the UK, encouraging them to compete for the highest level of recycling possible, to achieve the aim of zero landfill.

For RSG to work effectively, Cawleys had to analyse each Adelie site and train and engage the staff there. The supplier analysed the volume and movement of waste at each location to ensure the system worked and was understood. A “green fitness instructor” was deployed to support local staff, and a “green team” was set up at each site to receive ongoing training.

Simplifying the number of contracts has saved more than £30,000, while rebates for recovered waste has also returned £42,000. The strong relationship has also enabled rapid progress. “We were able to deploy the project more rapidly across the group and implement innovative solutions with more confidence and with less resistance to change than we would have if we followed our normal operational processes,” said Steve Wood, Adelie’s group operations director.

The two companies are even investigating joint purchasing of goods such as fuel and protective equipment which could save more than £112,000 a year."