Barloworld Transport, Meadow Feeds partnership built on a winning formula

From left to right: Mark Rylance and Heath Dormer (Barloworld Transport) and James Berry - COO Meadow Feeds (Western Cape)

“The current 10-year contract, which was signed between Barloworld Transport and Meadow Feeds in 2011, is unusual in the transport industry and a notable achievement that demonstrates how dynamic partnerships – built on the winning formula of collaboration, agility and trust - can achieve tremendous value,” says Neil Henderson, CEO of Barloworld Transport.

The winning formula

Innovative distribution orders and environmental improvements, both highly featured in this partnership, were given due recognition at the Logistics Achiever Awards in October 2016 where Barloworld Transport was the overall winner, as well as the recipient of the Enviro Award.

Since the contract commenced in 2011, there have been various environmental initiatives that have resulted in an overall 30% reduction in CO2 emissions, amounting to 110,971 trees saved. This was made possible by a 30% reduction in fuel usage and 23% less kilometres travelled.

“As a producer of specialised diets and custom feed mixes to the poultry, dairy, ostrich and swine industries, Meadow Feeds operates in a changing and unpredictable business environment as a supplier to animals within their different lifecycles. Therefore, the business strongly relies on a holistic feed solution with an innovative and lean supply chain model, linked to manufacturing, to ensure optimised delivery and cost-savings where possible,” explains Henderson.

The approach is aligned to Barloworld Transport’s business of evaluating clients and identifying how transportation and supply chain management can be constantly improved and optimised to drive efficiencies.

Henderson elaborates that throughout the partnership, Barloworld Transport has increased volumes by 25% and average payloads by 10% while managing to keep fleet volume growth at 4.5%. Overall, Barloworld Transport has managed to achieve savings of 14% for Meadow Feeds.

Smart solutions

Barloworld Transport’s smart solutions are at the core of the sustained partnership. Examples of these include Drivesmart, a driver performance change management system for use by commercial vehicle operators to reduce the risk of loss of life, injury to road-users and damage to vehicles and other property, thus ensuring drivers adhere to strict standards and that measures are in place to protect the client and company brands. All of these are integral to Barloworld Transport’s approach of placing its people at the heart of its business.

“When Meadow Feeds outsourced the non-core function of outbound logistics to Barloworld Transport, we knew that the ultimate success of the relationship would depend on the continuous improvement mindset that both companies share,” explains Andy Crocker, managing director of Meadow Feeds.

“Every year, real costs have to be removed from the business in order to maintain the year-on-year benefits – and this has been achieved consistently over the past four years. We have had to challenge each other to glean these benefits and will need to continue to do so in the difficult environment that the feed industry, and its customers, now face.”