Supply Chain View

While working on a European distribution strategy assignment for a client earlier this year, I did some work on how to use lower-carbon multi-modal transport and still get goods to the customer on time. So I was interested to read about Tesco’s latest innovation – bringing imported wine down Manchester Ship Canal by barge. My [...]

The Royal Mail here in the UK put out a press release last week announcing that it was “piling post hight to reduce environmental impact”. The story relates to the acquisition of 140 double-decked trailers for its distribution network, each with increased carrying capacity that will reduce the total road miles in the system. On [...]

The BBC reported last week that UK online retailing grew by 33.4% to £10.9bn last year. Today the headline was that supermarket Kwik Save was closing 79 stores in a bid to stay afloat. The former story is a well attested trend, and putting it next to the latter is to make a point in [...]

On the BBC’s Today programme this morning, business reporter Greg Wood interviewed Neill Denny, editor in chief of the Bookseller about “print-on-demand”. New technology allows book stores to print a single copy of a book for a customer. I don’t suppose this is ever going to happen for the latest Harry Potter or Bridget Jones, [...]