Colruyt NV and Euro Pool System Benelux have announced plans to open a joint depot in Halle.
Colruyt ranks 3rd in the Belgian distribution world and has been in the news in recent weeks because it has taken over the Belgian activities of the Dutch retail chain Laurus. Euro Pool System is the European market leader in the field of reusable packaging and, in addition to being a leasing company for containers, has also grown to become an important player in the area of retail chain integration.
Together, the two companies announced their plans to open a Euro Pool System depot at the Colruyt site 'Dassenveld' in Halle on January 1 2004.
Johan Vandenbossche at Colruyt said: 'Since January 2001, we have been expanding the 'Dassenveld' depot in Halle. The first phase, the expansion of our distribution centre, has been completed. The second phase involves splitting up our current return centre in Ghislenghien. All empty drink containers will continue to be returned to this location, but the empty fresh produce containers will be returned from the shops to Halle as of January 1 2004.' Dirk Vercammen, business manager at Euro Pool System Benelux, said: 'When we learned of Colruyt's plans, we immediately set up a workgroup together in order to study the possibility of opening a depot in Halle. It is of the utmost importance for us to look for suitable locations for our depots in order to minimise our logistics costs and therefore also the costs for our clients. The most suitable location for a depot is here, where there is a large concentration of our container traffic flow. This includes, of course, production areas such as the region of Sint Katelijne Waver and Roeselare, but also the distribution centres of the largest retailers. In 1999, we opened a depot in Asse, but the new depot in Halle will serve as a strategic base of operations for south-east Belgium.' Vandenbossche continued: 'We have been working with Euro Pool System for some time in the area of packaging itself. For us it is very important to get our products into the shops in the least expensive manner possible. Cutting logistics costs is one of the important things on which our price advantage over the competition is based. The logistics must be kept as simple as possible and Euro Pool System sees eye to eye with us on this philosophy. Such cost savings in the logistic chain also means less transport on the road and fewer empty or half-empty lorries. In this way we also try to reduce the adverse effects of traffic on the environment.' As of next January, all blue containers of Euro Pool System that are returned from the Colruyt shops will be handled and washed at the return centre of Colruyt in Halle. It will function as a dedicated Euro Pool System depot. Suppliers will be able to pick up clean containers from this location.
Vercammen concluded: 'It is important for our clients that their packaging is as inexpensive as possible. To achieve this, we have to be located right in the middle of the commercial trade chain and cut out all unnecessary operations. Via a 'dedicated depot' such as the one in Halle, this can be achieved perfectly. The chain integration provides advantages not only to Colruyt, but also to us. There are sufficient incentives built in to optimise the return logistics step by step even further.'
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