Berry Alliance, the UK’s first not for profit business
that supports growers supply direct to retailers,
officially launched on Monday 8 February.
Berry Alliance NFP is a new supply chain model that provides growers worldwide with UK based administration, packing and logistics services to supply direct to UK retailers. The Not For Profit model will take out significant costs compared to traditional, third party procurement supply.
Major retailers are moving toward direct supply from growers but growers often lack the UK infrastructure to supply them efficiently. Berry Alliance will fill this gap and the service is targeted at retailers with high volume supply requirements to enable the model to work most effectively.
Berry Alliance is headed up by Pascal Simian, formerly Berry Procurement Director at Wellpak with over 17 years’ experience. He commented, “Consultation’s been a crucial part of the process in developing Berry Alliance into a robust model that supports both ends of the supply chain. By working from UK stock holdings we’ve solved retailers’ biggest challenge, the ability to respond to consumer demand for a product that takes time to import.”
Berry Alliance is a partner company in the Service Ecosystem of independent businesses comprising Wellpak, Ackio and Elision.
Unlike retailers, which have only one outlet to sell fruit, Berry Alliance has multiple options from which to source the product and multiple outlets through which to sell on surplus. As well as removing the effort involved in establishing relationships with growers, Berry Alliance will alleviate the financial hit otherwise incurred by the retailer due to flux in consumer demand.
Unlike an importer, Berry Alliance is an NFP organisation that cannot take profit. The contract to supply exists between the grower and the retailer, with Berry Alliance acting as contract manager. Supply chain savings, are passed on as better prices to the retailer and enhanced returns to the grower. Progress on orders and every penny in the supply chain is transparent to both parties at every stage of the process.
Berry Alliance sits within an established Service Ecosystem of independent but complementary companies, including Wellpak, Ackio and Elision, that can be combined and configured to provide a unified service to the retailer. It can provide logistics, packing, technical and administrative support in a ready-made service infrastructure that allows growers immediate access to the UK fresh produce market. Through a sustainable supply chain, growers can be more flexible with their prices, so Berry Alliance is able to crunch costs in line with retailers’ needs, while saving them the time and effort it takes to deal direct.
Pascal Simian said: “After 18 months of research and careful refinement in consultation with both retailers and growers, we’ve built a cost-effective model that’s accessible to both ends of the supply chain, which we understand in-depth. Through Berry Alliance, we can bring the best produce to retailers, at the best price.”
Spanish fruit grower José Antonio Martin of AgromartÍn, one of the first growers to buy-in to the benefits of Berry Alliance, said: “Berry Alliance allows a meeting point between producers and retailers through very knowledgeable people who are experienced in the UK fresh produce market and its infrastructure. It’s designed to give a good service to both parties—it allows growers to see the needs of retailers first-hand and vice versa with a clear and transparent cost structure and a flexible supply chain to deliver the freshest fruit on demand.”
Berry Alliance began its first direct supply programme with a major retailer in January 2016.
For more information, please visit www.berryalliance.org.uk.