Cycling through wind, rain and glorious sunshine at times, a team of ‘Oakland and Friends’ battled to complete their 200-mile cycling challenge from Brighton to Warwick raising nearly £30,000, and as a whole group of 50-cycalists raised over £81,000 for children’s charity Molly Ollys!

Over the course of 3-days the cyclists suffered injury, blisters, punctures, and tested their endurance as they cycled up the many steep hills as the route progressed, with each stage a new cycling challenge.

Oakland and Friends team member and Molly Ollys ambassador Samuel Attwell said: “On behalf of us all we want to thank everyone for supporting us and the whole Molly Ollys 2024 cycling team as your donations will make such a huge difference to so many children living with a life-threatening illness.

“This money will now help grant 125 wishes for children with life threatening illnesses. THANK YOU!”

Molly Ollys supports children with life-threatening illnesses and their families helping with their emotional wellbeing. They fulfil wishes by providing gifts to individual children, donating their therapeutic toy ‘Olly The Brave’ and his story books, donate and support bespoke projects such as funding a Paediatric Palliative Care Consultant, and by furnishing the Magnolia House palliative care facility, at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, and so much more.

Molly Olly’s Rachel Ollerenshaw commented: “This year’s ride was certainly a challenge, but all the cyclists dug deep through difficult conditions because they wanted to make a difference. We had talked on Thursday night about the children we help and shared individual stories, this certainly helped to spur them on, knowing what these children go through on a day-to-day basis when undergoing treatment. A massive thanks to all the ‘Oakland and Friends’ team who contributed in so many ways and to all their supporters. A phenomenal achievement!”

Harlee, aged 3 was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and her treatment involves numerous visits to hospital over a long period of time which means missing out on the everyday fun things. The family got in touch to request a trip to CBeebies Land to give them something to look forward to.

Harlee absolutely loved it and mum, Lisa said: “Honestly, we can’t thank you enough for Harlee’s granted wish. She was absolutely amazed by the whole weekend especially meeting the real Bing and having her own Bing room. It was truly magical for her and filled her with so much happiness. Thank you once again.”

Oakland International Group CEO Shaun Foley added: “Every member of the Team wants to express their sincere gratitude for everyone’s support.”

Fresh Direct, the UK’s leading provider of foodservice fresh produce, has announced that it has become an Official Partner of ‘Love British Food’, the organisation that supports and promotes the use of British food.

 

Driving the use of British produce is a key strategic goal for Fresh Direct, and it has been working with British growers and customers to increase the amount of British food that it sells as part of its ongoing commitment to focus on providing the freshest, in-season British fruit and vegetables. The link with Love British Food is a natural extension of its Best of British campaign, which has seen Fresh Direct widely promote its British supply partners through social media and advertising campaigns as well as within a dedicated section on the website.

 

The partnership launches ahead of British Food Fortnight, which takes place from 20 September to 6 October, and will see Fresh Direct creating a PR and social media campaign as well as working with sister company, Brakes, to provide a range of offers and information on British produce. Brakes is also an Official Partner of Love British Food.

 

Paul Nieduszynski, CEO at Sysco GB, said: “Over the past few years, we have made a conscious decision to focus on increasing the amount of British food that we sell across all of Sysco’s British businesses.

 

“We know that customers want to put great British produce on their menus when it’s available and in season, whether that’s traditional fruit and vegetables or vertically-grown herbs, so we are working hard with more than 100 growers to provide a fantastic range of high quality, home-grown food for them.”

 

Alexia Robinson, Founder & CEO, Love British Food, added: “We are delighted to welcome Fresh Direct into the Love British Food family.  Their lead, alongside their sister company Brakes, in having a dedicated section on their British produce is something we applaud and are calling for across the industry.  The work they are doing with their growers is a testament of support to British fruit and vegetable producers at a time when so many are united in acknowledging we need to produce more fruit and veg on home soils. Demand for British seasonal produce is increasing exponentially and I am sure all the work Fresh Direct is doing will translate into commercial success too.”

The changes in crewing costs highlighted by a recent Seafish assessment published on 10th September impacts 75% of all of the boats landing scampi tails to Whitby Seafoods.

In the September report Seafish illustrate that the Nephrops (scampi) fleet could experience “annual operating losses of between £41.5k and £83.5k per vessel, on average unless these losses are offset by increased prices”.

Whitby Seafoods has chosen to support the boats impacted by substantially increasing the pricing paid for tails. Whitby has communicated that those boats that also support the In Transition to MSC programme (ITM) will get the highest tail prices.

This means the ITM – achieving MSC for scampi – has a financial incentive for boats. The In-Transition to MSC (ITM) fishing improvement programme is a new chapter in the sustainable management of the Nephrops fishery. All boats supplying Whitby with scampi tails will get an increase, however those boats signing up to the ITM obtain the highest level of tail price increase from the company.

In the September report Seafish goes on to state that the changes could lead to “vessel tie-ups and business closures, with a knock-on impact on scampi supply in the UK”.
This is why Whitby have acted proactively to ensure this is not the case.

The Seafish assessment of the impact of the change on Nephrops prices indicates that to meet the revised salaries on-board boats necessitated by the government the prices paid by “processors/wholesalers to vessel operators would need to increase by 33%”.

Seafish goes on to state that the price that processors would charge retailers would need to increase by 14.5% and that the price that processors would charge food service sector buyers would need to increase by 15.6%.

Whitby have asked retail and foodservice customers for price increases to cover the tail price increases. Whitby have chosen to recover only a portion of the additional costs in order to keep the scampi category competitive in a tough market place.

Whitby Seafoods Managing Director Daniel Whittle said:
“Whitby Seafoods has taken significant steps to improve the viability of UK scampi and our recent initiatives demonstrate the positive direction we are heading in. We’re proud to play a leading role in helping the sector adopt and implement measures which will ensure that the UK Fishing fleet is safe and sustainable for generations to come.

As an independent family-owned company we’re deeply committed to the sustainability of our waters, and we’re working hard to make sure that responsible fishing practices help scampi remain a firm favourite on the tables of UK families for generations to come. No one welcomes price inflation, but this should lead to an important step change in the scampi fishery”.

A link to the Seafish report mentioned is below:-

Skilled Worker Visa changes – impact on the seafood sector | Seafish

Blockchain technology is revolutionising warehouse management systems (WMS) and other supply chain applications. The inherently secure nature of the technology allows supply chain partners to create and share detailed information about items as they move from one location to another: in simple terms each action or movement creates a new irreversible block in the chain. Built-in safeguards prevent unauthorised transaction entries and create consistency in supply chain partners’ shared view of those transactions. Data is secure and nothing can be deleted or modified unless everyone agrees. This means that data contained in the blockchain can be used as an authoritative record of the item’s history. The technology is growing in popularity and was one of the five trends in WMS that we identified earlier this year.

 

There is no doubt that product traceability and provenance tracking is the major benefit of blockchain technology. This is important across almost every industry and at a basic level the technology supports the quality, consistency, assurances, and trust that underpin all good business relationships. But with supply chains becoming increasingly complex and global there are more opportunities physical interventions, disruptions, and fraudulent activities such as counterfeiting that have even more serious implications. This may be particularly true in industries or sectors covered by strict governance and regulations such as agriculture, food, pharmaceutical, chemicals, aerospace, and automotive. In these and other industries knowing that an item is what it claims to be, and being able to trace its origins, can have much wider implications for safety and health.

 

To illustrate how blockchain works, imagine a scenario where a warehouse receives a shipment of perishable goods, such as fresh produce or pharmaceuticals. Using a blockchain-based system, each item in the shipment is assigned a unique digital token. Throughout its journey from the supplier to the warehouse, the item’s status (e.g. temperature, humidity, handling conditions) is recorded on the blockchain. This creates a record of the item’s history, ensuring that everyone involved (suppliers, logistics providers, warehouse staff) can verify its authenticity and quality. If any discrepancies or deviations occur (e.g. temperature spikes), the blockchain can trigger alerts, allowing immediate corrective action. When the goods are dispatched from the warehouse to retailers or customers, the same process continues, providing end-to-end traceability. In case of recalls or quality issues, the blockchain enables rapid identification of affected batches, minimising risks and ensuring consumer safety. The result is enhanced supply chain transparency, reduced fraud, and improved overall trust in the quality and origin of products within the warehouse ecosystem. In some ways, none of this is new. WMS have, after all, offered benefits such as data accuracy and consistency that support and enable highly detailed and effective product traceability. Blockchain builds on these capabilities by enabling the security that adds reassurance for all supply chain stakeholders. But there are inevitably some challenges to address.

 

Complexity and Learning Curve: blockchain is a relatively new and complex technology. Understanding its intricacies can be challenging for warehouse operators and IT teams. This can create barriers to adoption and innovation, as well as potential for misuse and errors. Learning how to design, deploy, and maintain a blockchain network requires specialised knowledge. Much of this burden will be removed as WMS and other application suppliers embed blockchain capabilities into their products so that they work in the background.

 

Integration with Existing Systems: most warehouses already have established legacy systems for inventory management, order processing, and logistics. Blockchain technology is not generally compatible with existing systems and standards, which can make it difficult to integrate with legacy infrastructure and applications. This can require significant modifications and investments to adopt blockchain solutions. Nevertheless, it is still fundamentally data that is involved so there is no reason why WMS cannot work well with the technology.

 

Scalability and Performance: blockchain networks have limited capacity to process transactions, which can result in slow performance and high fees. As the number of users and transactions increases, the network can become congested and inefficient which will limit speed and responsiveness. Ensuring the blockchain can handle the volume of data generated by a busy warehouse operation is crucial. Most modern WMS are optimised around requirements such as interoperability and scalability and in themselves should not present a limiting factor on blockchain.

 

Costs and Resources: setting up and maintaining a blockchain network involves costs related to infrastructure, development, and ongoing management. Allocating resources (both financial and human) for blockchain implementation can be a challenge, especially for smaller warehouses. Again, much of this will become less of an issue when the technology is more commonplace in the applications that work with it.

 

Data Privacy and Security: while blockchain provides transparency, it also exposes data to all participants in the network. Ensuring that sensitive information (such as customer details or proprietary inventory data) remains secure is essential.

 

Regulatory Compliance: each country or trading bloc is likely to have different regulations covering data privacy, storage, and security. Complying with these regulations while using blockchain can be complex, especially when data is stored across multiple – particularly international – locations. Application developers should be abreast of the rules covering the territories where they operate.

 

Interoperability: warehouses collaborate with suppliers, logistics providers, and retailers. Ensuring that all parties can participate in the same blockchain network requires interoperability standards. As before, this will be less of an issue as blockchain becomes a standard (or optional) part of a WMS.

 

Energy Consumption: proof-of-work (PoW) blockchains (such as Bitcoin) consume significant energy because of the way the technology is applied in the so-called “mining” process. Supply chain partners will no doubt be mindful of the need to manage energy consumption but the type of blockchain they will be using will be more clearly defined and less open-ended which should prevent any major issues.

 

Resistance to Change: employees and stakeholders may resist adopting blockchain due to fear of disruption or unfamiliarity. Change management strategies are crucial to overcome this challenge.

 

Lack of Industry Standards: the lack of standardised protocols and best practices for blockchain in warehousing can hinder widespread adoption. Collaborative efforts are needed to establish industry norms. In practice, there are many forms and flavours of blockchain or at least systems based on the same concepts. Principal Logistics Technologies, for example, developed its worldwide patented Unique Referencing (UR) mechanism years before blockchain although both are based on the same concepts. Today, UR is the backbone of the ProWMS product suite. Whenever a stock item undergoes a new transaction, such as being moved or picked, ProWMS applies a new UR which is added to the chain for that particular item and provides complete forward and backward traceability at any time. A chain can comprise an unlimited number of URs. Crucially, a new UR cannot be added unless the previous UR exists and the new transaction has been confirmed.

 

Integrating blockchain with warehouse management systems offers the prospect of enhanced data security and accuracy covering aspects such as inventory levels, order processing, and shipment tracking. This offers immense potential for improving transparency and trust in warehousing but addressing the associated challenges is essential for successful implementation.

 

Principal Logistics Technologies as source of this article: http://www.principalsystems.com