There is a good chance if it’s in the fridges of the major retailers, it’s been handled by Pure Logistics.
Pure Logistics was born out of two proud Australian family companies, Scott’s Refrigerated Freightways and McColl’s Transport. Both were acquired by ABN AMRO Capital in late 2005. On March 1st, 2007, Scott’s McColl’s Group Holdings became Pure Logistics, providing a unifying identity through the creation and use of a new name and brand.
The name change is the beginning of a new era and is an essential element of the company‘s strategy; to be the leading specialist provider to the food grade and bulk liquid industry in Australia. Pure Logistics is at the cutting edge of refrigerated transport, cold storage, bulk liquid distribution and warehousing services to the food, resale, chemical and manufacturing industries. Pure Logistics works with all the major food manufacturers and retailers to ensure the varied requirements are always met in terms of warehousing, transport and logistics solutions.
The commitment that the company will execute is best summed up by Paul Graham, CEO of Pure Logistics: “Everything we do is built around this promise to our customers: we will protect the purity of whatever it is you ask us to deliver. We will do this through a combination of smart thinking, clever technology and a passion to get the job done. Whatever you entrust us with, we promise to carry it safely, carefully and with constant supervision.”
The Pure Logistics Group has three main classifications to its warehousing function that supports the group’s seven divisions. On the bulk liquids side, the group runs a number of ambient warehouses in all states. These are used for a combination of general warehousing contracts and also for consolidation before and after the linehaul leg. The cold chain division has major sites in each state that offer two major services: frozen storage at -20 ºC, and chilled storage at 0 to +4 ºC. This gives customers secure, reliable storage and warehousing services all hosted on one national warehousing system.
In addition these cold stores all have refrigerated dock space that forms the backbone of the cold chain division’s national network of chilled cross dock freight consolidation. This network will be moving onto a track and trace system for tracking pallets across the network – the first of its kind in Australia’s cold chain transport industry.
The cold chain division runs operations catering for the various requirements relating to meat, produce, and manufactured commodities in both chilled and frozen contexts. Pure Logistics also caters for goods in the confectionery sectors.
Pure Logistics has implemented the Paperless Warehousing warehouse management system (WMS) in all the major DCs as the national WMS solution . This allows for the monitoring and tracking of stock levels, stock rotation, use-by-dates, pallet numbers, lot and batch numbers. Accuracy rates associated with management of customers’ goods is near 100%. Errors are absolutely minimal. Orders can be received electronically and batch and date information can be utilized.
Pure Logistics utilises radio frequency (RF) infrastructure to scan stock barcodes and manage pallets that are consistent with standard serial shipper container codes (SSCC). Recently, Pure Logistics successfully migrated an old narrowband RF network to a new, modern, high speed broadband RF network meeting all the requirements of 802.11 G/B standards for this technology.
This revamped network allows for improved performance on an operational level delivered by improved first scan, increased reliability, reduction in downtime and improved speed in relation to data base updates. The Paperless Warehousing WMS operates 60-plus hand-held and fork mounted RF devices across the organisation.
Each of the cold chain facilities, that’s six sites nationally, is operating the Paperless Warehousing WMS. The Pure Logistics transport division (formerly McColls Transport) was operating a different WMS, and a further six sites are currently being replaced by the Paperless Warehousing WMS to provide a national standardised solution with Paperless.
According to national operations manager Dean Newman the Paperless Warehousing WMS is an integral element of the companies offering.
“We have quite an operation, each of our facilities around the country operates 24 hours a day 7 days a week, 365 days a year. We deliver up to 80% of all refrigerated and perishable products to the retail sector nationally. There is a good chance if it’s in the fridges of the major retailers it’s been handled by Pure Logistics, and by the Paperless WMS” he said.
“Once we’ve implemented across the six new sites, the Paperless Warehousing WMS will be managing well over 50,000 pallet positions, and to give you an idea of the volumes, in the lead up to Christmas ‘06 we cross-docked up to 70,000 pallets a week.”
“I’ve been in the supply chain and logistics industry for over 15 years and in my experience the Paperless Warehousing WMS is the system most suited to our business, ” said Newman. “We enjoy the application, reliability is a key feature and we find it to be an exceptionally robust application,” he said.
“With the help of the Paperless Warehousing team we’ve been able to develop a first for the cold chain industry and that’s a track-and-trace facility capable of tracking a pallet at a granular level and even drill down to a carton level,” said Newman.
“This has been around in the dry freight industry for some 15 years, but it’s a first for the cold chain. It’s required a significant investment, however, ABN AMRO is prepared to invest to ensure we are providing the very best service to our customers,” he said.
“I’ve also been impressed with the team at Paperless Warehousing. Fundamentally they understand our business and the business of warehousing and meet the demands we drive at them,” he said.
“Enhancements to the system are not a problem and frankly they are very reasonable with the rates they charge for required changes,” said Newman, “I’ve worked with other WMS providers and charges for modifications have been astronomical.”
Pure Logistics is also a proud supporter of the community at large and in particular it is an Emerald Sponsor of CanTeen, the national support organisation for young people (aged 12-24) living with cancer, including cancer patients, their brothers and sisters and young people with parents or primary carers with cancer.
“We support CanTeen by supplying transport for the distribution of one million bandanas for the annual event, National Bandana Day,” said marketing manager Danielle Grant, “and we deliver them in our vehicles displaying the iconic CanTeen logo. It is a ‘moving billboard’ for CanTeen and especially important when we reach those kids affected by cancer who are isolated in regional areas,” she said.
“Supply chain is now a technologically advanced industry and it continues to embrace new and emerging technologies,” said Newman. “Another progressive initiative is our unique school community program, allowing students to gain first hand experience about the industry and road safety. Overall, it demonstrates how progressive warehousing and transportation has become. Hopefully we will attract younger generations into the industry,” he said.
“Future growth, both organic and through acquisition, is a key strategy for Pure Logistics, and the WMS enables us to consistently deliver a superior service in the cold chain industry as well as assisting with our ongoing business objectives,” he said.