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The
Cold Chain
The Cold Chain, one of the leading perishable logistics
companies in South Africa, has become a vital link between
the country's foremost perishable manufacturers and customers
in the retail industry across the region. With 12 distribution
centers throughout South Africa The Cold Chain distributes
more than 280 000 tons of food products every year. In
addition to our specialized outbound logistics
services, the company
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also offers sales and merchandising services to our customers
through Mercor Solutions, a division of The Cold Chain.
Target Sectors & National spread
The Cold Chain is a national, specialist perishables food
distribution organization operating within the top-end,
mid trade and food service sectors. We are represented
in 12 regions, namely Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Johannesburg
(City Deep), Dundee, Durban, East London, George, Klerksdorp,
Nelspruit, Midrand, Polokwane and Port Elizabeth.
Our customers
We currently service and have the support of more than
20 of the country's top food manufacturers that supply
perishable products, such as dairy, fish, processed meat
and prepared foods, poultry, margarine and frozen vegetables
to retail and small customers in South Africa. |
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Integrated
Service Offering
The Cold Chain is the only independent service provider
(i.e. not owned by a manufacturing company) in South Africa
with the ability to provide a national integrated temperature
controlled warehousing and transportation, sales, merchandising,
and debtors administration service to its customers.
• Warehousing
Throughout its distribution network, The Cold Chain has
in excess of 20 000 pallet locations in its temperature
controlled warehouses. The warehouses are generally split
in two temperature regimes: chilled (2 to 5 °C) and
frozen (-18°C) and a warehouse management system enforces
strict adherence to a first-in-first-out stock rotation
rule.
• Transportation
The Cold Chain has a fleet of 260 delivery vehicles throughout
South Africa. The fleet consists mostly of 4 to 8 ton
vehicles, fitted with insulated load bodies and refrigeration
units. Stock is delivered on a weekly basis to all |
top
end retail stores throughout South Africa. As part of
our service offering we also provide product recall and
reverse logistics services to our customers.
• Sales
More than 190 sales representatives and telesellers are
employed nationally. This sales force is focused on pro-actively
driving product sales amongst others, regular hard sales
calls to existing and potential customers, in-store promotion
initiatives and telesales. At top-end retail our hands-on
team leaders manage the merchandisers, sales coordinators,
forward share, stock, orders, returns and customers agreements
with outlets.
• Merchandising
In excess of 1100 merchandisers are employed to ensure
point of purchase excellence at top-end channels and mid-trade
outlets across South Africa. Full-time merchandisers are
available in the top sector, and in mid-trade merchandising
services are available to all stores depending on volumes.
• Debtors Administration and Management
Information
As part of an integrated service offering, The Cold Chain
administers the collection of cash from the retail trade
on behalf of its manufacturing customers. Detailed management
information is provided to our customers on a daily basis
via a state of the art secure information portal.
Imperial Logistics
As part of Imperial Logistics we have the backup, experience
and expertise to deliver on our promises. We build long-term
partnerships with our customers, we invest in our people,
we regard honesty and integrity as non-negotiable, and
we always strive to bring innovative ideas to the table.
Our cost structure is flexible and driven by your needs.
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