Moving to Hornby – ‘the transition plan’

The construction progress of our Hornby ambient distribution centre extension since we last communicated to you has come a long way and is looking very much more like an operational site with floor, roof and walls all constructed and the canopy and drive way now well underway. We have also commenced the racking programme and these frames are currently under construction for placement and erection. We remain close to our August/September 2014 transition plan into this site and we will continue to work closely with you as we near this date period. 

We thank you and greatly appreciate your cooperation and efforts against the tasks we have requested from you up to this point. You have received the DRAFT order from which you have responded accordingly with a thorough review and recommendation feedback. You have also provided an indication of the 'minimum delivery notice' timeframe we requested along with methodology of how you might provide effective delivery to us. Within the next few weeks we will confirm the exact detail of the total purchase order volume (in spreedsheet format) that we will request your further cooperation to break into efficient purchase order quantities (i.e. full trucks/FCL's etc.). The instructions relating to this will accompany your purchase order detail. Once we receive this back from you it is our intention to generate the physical purchase order/s for you, accepting the accountability for this task. The receiving schedule for the transition phase remains at 6 weeks from the building handover date as earlier advised.

We are very much aware that you wait in anticipation of the exact week and day for your purchase order delivery. With a build programme of the scale such as this we are at the mercy of weather, materials deadlines, engineers and council consenting and staying on target at times has been challenging. We can say that are very pleased with where we are at this stage but we are still not at a point of the development to give this level of exactness to you. Please continue your patience with us, we are mindful of how critical this piece of information is to allowing for all the logistical tasks you are required to carry out. We will commit a promise to you that we will inform you at the earliest point we can.

We have now appointed an operational transition coordinator who is James Smith and he has been tasked with the job of working closely with us all on the 'when and how' you will make your delivery to us. Particular focus will be placed on the vendors with the multiple truck/FCL deliveries and it is likely that face to face meetings will be arranged by James.

A few reminders worthy of mention is our total commitment to our members of uninterrupted supply leading into and throughout this transition. This means that as we optimise stock on hand in the Papanui DC in the lead up we must maintain appropriate levels to achieve this. We will not compromise this in any way other than ensuring that overstocks and discontinued articles are appropriately addressed. The next reminder is the commitment we expect of total supply of the Hornby initial order. You have been provided some months of advanced notice of our requirements and we are depending on your commitment to supply this in full and on time.

We will still be on track with providing further information on the centralisation of slow selling articles in the Dunedin regional DC into Hornby. They will commence this off the back of the transition phase of Papanui once completed.

For the purpose of house-keeping details of the Hornby DC address is 17 Hickory Place and the site reference number is 810 (Papanui is 100 and Dunedin is 200). Finally we again remind your company and key staff to be contactable through the Foodstuffs Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) contact data base. If you are not yet set up in SRM please visit to do so as soon as possible as our communication will come from the appropriate contacts held here.

The key contacts are referenced for your information below.

Thank you in advance for your continued cooperation.