Spicy food company Santa Maria UK and Yusen Logistics have jointly won the coveted Supply Chain Initiative trophy in the industry’s Oscars – the Food Manufacturing Excellence Awards (FMEAs), at the London Park Lane Hilton in a glittering award ceremony last night (November 20).
The firm’s achievements were recognised in front of hundreds of industry guests, as the Santa Maria’s Matthew Rouse and Yusen Logistics’ Terry Newman collected the award from Jude Mason, technical services director, with category sponsor NSF International. They were joined on stage by the awards host and star TV presenter Mark Durden-Smith.
The FMEA awards’ independent judging panel – led by Paul Wilkinson, chair of National Skills Academy and non-executive director of Thorntons – praised the partnership between the two businesses. Working closely Yusen Logistics, Santa Maria had managed to optimise inventories, improve customer relationships and ensure better collaboration with its suppliers, said the judges.
“Not only had this released £1.5M of working capital, it had cut the amount of stock held by a whopping 28% and improved the flow of finished goods to stores,” said the judges. “Santa Maria and Yusen have fundamentally restructured their operations to make a large supply chain far more efficient.”
