Tesco Takes the Canal Route in Green Strategy

19/10/07 Tesco will this week become the first major UK retailer to start transporting freight by canal.

The UK retailer says that the pioneering, green waterbourne move on the Manchester Ship Canal will result in thousands of lorries being taken off Britain’s congested roads.

And the move to ferry wine by barge from Liverpool to Manchester will cut carbon emissions compared with the existing method by 80 per cent.

It will also take 50 lorries off the road every week which will result in an incredible saving of 1.1 million kilometres of heavy lorry journeys on British roads.

Plans are already underway by Tesco to use similar waterborne freight routes across Britain.

Said Tesco Distribution Director Laurie McIlwee: “Other businesses have merely discussed switching over to transporting their cargo by waterway one day but we’re actually doing it.

“This move will be like taking a step back to the pre-car days of the late Victorian era - when a lot of cargo was still transported by canal – but is a step forward in helping to address today’s important environmental issues.

“We are continually reviewing alternative green methods of transporting cargo and this is our first waterborne project within the UK. We are already looking at other areas where we can move freight on waterways.

“Reducing carbon emissions and looking at how we can make the business more environmentally-friendly is a priority and by 2012 we aim to halve the amount of carbon emitted per case of goods delivered.”

The new cargo service will start on October 18 and will involve three journeys a week, delivering an estimated 600,000 litres of wine on each journey along the 40 mile stretch of the canal.

The containers of wine from Australia, California, Chile and Argentina are then transported to a bottling site less than half a mile away where they are packed for Tesco supermarkets across the country.

Until now Tesco’s New World wine shipments have arrived in the UK at various southern ports by ship before being driven to the Manchester bottling depot.

Each 20ft container of wine taken by barge up the canal will take a truck off the road.

The scheme has won the support of Sea and Water, the independent pressure group lobbying for maximising the use of Britain’s waterways for freight transport.

It says that by deploying a multi-modal solution, Tesco has taken an important step towards making water an increasingly mainstream local transport option.

Said Sea and Water director Francis Power: “Tesco are to be commended for their vision, leadership, and commitment to reducing the environmental impact of modern consumer expectations.”

The transport innovation has come together thanks to a partnership between Tesco, Salford based importers and bottlers Kingsland Wines and Spirits and the co-operation of the Peel Ports union between Manchester Ship Canal and the Port of Liverpool.

Said Kingsland supply chain director Michael Forde: “One corner of our production site is only 50 yards from the Manchester Ship Canal and having grasped the advantages of shipping directly into Liverpool, we wanted to explore the idea of using this great historic waterway.

“By trans-shipping from the Liverpool terminal to the container terminal in Manchester we are ensuring that the traffic stays on the water rather than roads for as long as possible.”