It’s one of the busiest times of the year for Barfoots of Botley who, together with supply chain partner IPP, are responsible for delivering four different types of pumpkins into the UK’s supermarkets. At its busiest time in 2022, the Bognor Regis-based company delivered the equivalent of 40 truckloads of pumpkins in one day.
According to Paul Chilton, the company’s head of logistics and planning, the UK’s growing love with seasonal festivities has led to year-on-year growth for pumpkin deliveries throughout its eight-year relationship with IPP. IPP, one of Europe’s leading poolers of pallets and boxes, works with market gardeners and growers across the country to deliver pumpkins into the nation’s supermarkets.
Paul said: “Along with the summer sweetcorn season, this is one of our busiest times of the year. We’re moving more than a million pumpkins, which are used for carving, cooking and decoration. The biggest of the lot is the carving pumpkin, which accounts for around 750,000 of the pumpkins we grow and move. The vast majority of these are distributed over just four weeks. It’s a huge technical challenge getting everything lined up for effectively one day.”
Source: uknewsgroup.co.uk