The world has united to condemn the actions of Russia. We have all seen and read about substantial migration of the population within Ukraine and into the neighbouring countries, especially Poland, which is putting pressure on food supply chain infrastructure, accommodation, transport etc.

We share a desire to support our European partners and are therefore assembling teams from the UK & Ireland to mobilise a fleet of initially 50 trucks to deliver much needed basic supplies of food and drink to the main border crossing points to Poland, in particular Dorohusk and Medyka.

We are now looking for partners to fill trucks with supplies of essential food and drink. We can deliver ambient, chilled and frozen consignments and we can collect from manufacturing sites or warehouses across the UK and Ireland.

Oakland International and Capital Transport will be orchestrating the logistical operation and we will be liaising with the Polish and Ukrainian embassies and Red Cross to agree on the best locations for food and drink dispersal. We do have a large number of Polish and Ukrainian drivers in the transport network who are of course well placed to assist.

How can you help? Please advise on what stock items and quantities (total pallets and approximate weight) that you are able to and prepared to donate.

If you have a full load of 26 standard pallets or 33 euro pallets, we can collect. Short shelf-life stock of under 7 days should be avoided – but let’s remember that we can be creative; bread and pastries and many other types of short shelf-life products can be frozen for transport to extend their shelf life.

If you have less than full loads, please consider talking to partners in your network to see if you can between you pull a load together. We are happy to send a driver to collect from up to three locations to fill a trailer.

Alternatively, you can deliver pallet quantities to our central consolidation sites at Redditch, Bardon, Corby or Dublin.

The Board of Oakland International has agreed to pay for the first 50 loads of stock to get to the borders and/or into Ukraine if we can get in. We know that this situation could be long-lasting but our efforts here are to assist with humanitarian support whilst the initial shock displacement is taking place.

We can move fast and would see your urgent support and commitments to enable us to start shipping stock from Wednesday this week.

UK Producers retailers, wholesalers and agents

Contact Dean Attwell Co-Founder & CEO Oakland International

+44 (0)7715 764 352 dean.attwell@oakland-international.com

Jane Thompson Executive Assistant

+44 (0)1527 593 982 jane.thompson@oakland-international.com

Ireland Producers, retailers & wholesalers

Contact Enda Maher. MD Capital Transport & Shipping

+353 (0)85 28 10 887 enda@capitaltransport.eu

We will have full traceability of stock moved from collection point to certified points of delivery with geofenced destination locations and constant temperature logging. We are also attempting to provide additional assistance on the ground at the point of offloading.

Any questions, please feel free to email or ring myself, Jane or Enda directly.

Yours sincerely,

Dean Attwell Chief Executive & Co-Founder