Cold storage and more

Dairy Foods,  Dec, 1991  by Jeff Reiter

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Still, Margeson forsees more dairy business for his company as processors seek to maximize their return on investment. "The [dairy] people we talk to want to make product and sell product, they don't want to warehouse it."

Pioneer, meanwhile, is laying the groundwork for an all-dairy pooled freight pick-up program. Under such a program, grocery wholesalers - some of whom are presently driving through the area with empty trucks - would be able to stop at Pioneer's dock and pick up their complete dairy requirements for their next-day deliveries to retail stores. The plan is consistent with wholesaler's growing emphasis on reducing their own warehouse inventory levels to cut costs.

"All of your supermarket wholesalers have gone to computerized [just-in-time] ordering systems," Shuster points out. "There is very little forward buying being done."

Given this trend, manufacturers would benefit from a pooled dairy program in terms of fewer small deliveries to wholesalers. And with wholesale buyers no longer feeling pressure to order full truckloads direct from a single manufacturer to save money, freshness and rotation problems at wholesale warehouses could be reduced. Processors would then write fewer credits for spoiled or out-of-code product.

Pioneer also looks forward to handling fluid milk in corrugated cases, but concedes that most processors are wary of losing direct control of their fresh product. "Dairies tend to think their product is unique but, quite frankly, milk is a lot easier to handle than strawberries," says Shuster.

COPYRIGHT 1991 BNP Media
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning