Dublin, Ireland, 26th August 2020. Bucking the current defensive trend during these challenging times, warehouse management technology specialist, Principal Logistics Technologies has made two key management appointments.

The company has hired Brian Connolly as Corporate Development Director. A fellow of the Association of Chartered Accountants Ireland, and with a business acquisition background, Connolly has been successful in growing business services organisations, enabling them to reach and serve an expanded customer base.

Additionally the company has hired Sharon Jennings as Chief Financial Officer. Jennings brings over ten years’ experience with a leading full-service distribution business and will also manage Principal Logistics Technologies’ business operations, supporting planned growth.

Peter Flanagan, founder and managing director, commented “We continue to experience strong organic growth despite the obvious Covid-19 challenges. Demand has never been greater for our technology and services which help 3PL warehouses, distributors, manufacturers and others in the supply chain optimise and manage their businesses to keep ahead of their competitors”.

Flanagan continued, “To leverage our experience and accelerate business growth, we plan to adopt a buy-and-build strategy. To head up this approach I’m delighted to welcome Brian who brings experience of multiple successful business acquisitions, and to Sharon, who brings the finance and 3PL sector project management experience we will need to support our planned business expansion”.

“I must give the British people a very simple instruction. You must stay at home”. With these words on 23 March, the Prime Minister ushered in the most far reaching behavioural change amongst the British people. The immediate reaction was concern over the necessities. Supermarkets were raided for food (and toilet rolls) and shelves were stripped bare. But another reaction was setting in beneath this raw demand for food and for some people that resolved itself into the question of how would they replace the meals that they were used to eating in restaurants? The infrastructure existed in the form of restaurant delivery. Up stepped Domino’s and other pizza chains who had developed their own technology to manage their order taking, pizza production, and delivery infrastructure.

Building on their strong relationships with their customers, they were able to meet the growing demand for their products. And about a month into lockdown, Just Eat, another technology market-place business, whose sales had significantly slowed down immediately after the Prime Minister’s announcement, was tapping into its nationwide base of independent restaurants and takeaways who were able to stay open, to prepare meals for delivery.

At this time, chain operators, partly out of concern over their ability to ensure safe working conditions, had all but shut down, but after a few weeks of lockdown they too were starting to reopen. Meanwhile the restaurant delivery business of Deliveroo and UberEats, had slowed massively since chain operators had stopped any form of meal production. The delivery companies replaced this lost business in part by delivering groceries and alcoholic drinks and made minor pivots towards helping the vulnerable who, unable to go shopping, stayed at home.

Two months into lockdown, the restaurant delivery market having initially substantially fallen, was now once again on the rise and by the end of June, sales, measured at Gross Market Values – sales to consumers – were broadly up to pre-lockdown levels and running at about £750 million a month when the rest of the restaurant sector was all but dead.

Delivery, which only a handful of years ago, had been a start-up market disruptor became a core underpinning of the restaurant sector during covid lockdown.

Now, delivery – a potent marriage of technology and last mile delivery -is morphing at speed into other channels too, with the rise of dark kitchens being a prime example. Where will it go from here?

Peter Backman joins the BFFF on Wednesday 16th September to look further into the technology shift in Foodservice due to COVID-19 – Sign up here

BFFF Response to the Government’s proposal to remove the use of Red Diesel

Over the course of the last few days the Federation has been very active on the issue of the Government’s proposal to remove the use of Red Diesel from refrigerated lorries from April 2022.

Firstly, we took part in a Round Table discussion with the Treasury. Simon Brentnall of the BFFF was joined by Ross Hunter of McCain and Ross Browning from Iceland. We made the case that at the moment the technology for other forms of refrigeration on large vehicles does not exist.

We argued along with our members that more time is needed to make the change. Also, the Government should ensure there is investment funds available to help the transition into new technology.

Following the Round Table we joined the Cold Chain Federation and FWD in writing to the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak. The letter re-enforced our position that more time is needed for the change and that more Government investment is required. Click HERE to read the letter.

The BFFF will submit a response to the current consultation. We will contact members over the next couple of weeks to get your opinions on this issue.

If anyone would like to submit their views then please contact Simon Brentnall – simonbrentnall@bfff.co.uk