The Green Supply Chain

Celebrating one year in the new Dubai Investment Park head office, 4Corners commercial director, Mike Walden, tells Logistics News ME how the green supply chain is helping to reduce the carbon foot print of food supply by up to 90%

Over recent years, the delivery of F&B items from warehouse to restaurant or retail outlets has become highly romanticised with the use of wholesome, whitewashed marketing terms such as “farm to fork”.

As a result, consumers and business partners alike have been largely unaware of the inefficiencies of the industry and the wide-ranging impacts, from congested roads to air pollution.

Behind the scenes, the industry is one based on daily drop offs, using multiple vehicles, which are not always fit for purpose.

Dubai-based food supplier 4Corners has made it a mission over recent years to attempt to reverse these trends, while educating the industry on how to increase efficiency and minimize costs. The firm even undertook a six month study with the Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management, in order to develop a greater understanding of procurement and delivery and how the environmental impact of these can be reduced.

Now aiming to re-shape the logistics of food supply across the UAE, the findings of the study were used to create a blueprint for a new warehouse and the wider F&B procurement business, with efficiency at the core of the operation.
The firm relocated to the new facility a little over one year ago and now has data to support the claim that it can reduce the carbon footprint of F&B logistics by 90%.

4Corners commercial director, Mike Walden, says: “Our green supply chain is about doing all the right things to minimize the impact on the environment, whilst ensuring the business operates as safely and efficiently as possible.

“Our business model can remove 90% of the carbon footprint of the majority of food businesses, or non-food, across the UAE. It is a ‘one stop shop’, one order, one delivery, all products, and we operate our supply chain with all multi-temperature vehicles,” he adds.

Today, as one of only two food distributors in the region to have the ISO 22000 accreditation and a Green Globe certification, 4Corners has received support from across the supply chain and industry.

Walden adds: “The response from customers has been amazing, they literally have to see the facilities and the fact that we are doing a professional job to see we are committed to changing the face of the supply chain industry for food in the UAE.

“The facility and study behind it take into account so many aspects of the supply chain and there is nothing else like it in the UAE at the moment from a green perspective.”

Behind the initiative

Features in the new warehouse include mobile racking, motion sensor lighting, electric-powered forklifts and electronic coding (see box).

Walden elaborates: “Our new facility fully supports the green initiative from our warehouse management systems driving customer’s electronic ordering right through to night time deliveries; our customers can even see ‘live-stock’ of their products on their phones 24/7.”

Investing a “significant”, albeit undisclosed, sum into the bespoke warehouse, Walden reports that there is “room to grow” in the new facilities and that operations will expand further in future.

With 80 people already on the team and over 5,000 SKUs across ambient, frozen and chilled products, 4Corners has recently signed new contracts with 7-Eleven – the largest convenience store chain in the world with over 56,000 stores, for which 4Corners will supply over 1,800 products – Wendy’s and THEATRE by Rhodes at VOX Cinemas.

Walden adds: “We now have over 20 trucks on the road, but we base our business on efficiency not number of trucks. All our vehicles have electronic tracking, are multi-temperature and operate 24/7, so we maximize vehicle utilisation.”

While this initiative has been successful for 4Corners, Walden is still keen to see further advancements in F&B supply chains introduced by other companies. As detailed in the firm’s mission statement, there is a gap in the market to utilize product sourcing and supply chain expertise to the Middle East.

In addition to the focus on sustainability, Walden and his team have also made it a core business value to bring greater transparency to the F&B supply chain, through more stringent procurement methods and business partnerships based on ethics, rather than favours.

Looking towards the future for both this specific business model, as well as the implications for the wider industry, Walden concludes: “What needs to happen next is the [restaurant] operators who can affect the environment, need to start doing something about it. How many times have you seen 30 or 40 lorries queueing up to get into a hotel to deliver products that could arrive on one vehicle?

“We have professional operators throughout our business, and our highly experienced team of quality assurance and warehousing and distribution executives make sure that our teams are educated on all aspects of the business, at all times.”

Integrating the Green Supply Chain

Facilities in the 4Corners warehouse include:

Mobile racking
Motion sensor lighting
Recycled plastic pallets instead of wood
Ec-H20 water cleaning system that uses 70% less water
Euro 4 standard, low-emission, vehicles
Electric heating mats in freezers to prevent ice buildup
Electric forklifts producing zero harmful emissions
Electronic barcoding and goods delivery systems, to remove unnecessary paper from the supply chain