Innovating to ensure smooth and sustainable logistics

The turnaround of bananas is fast, finely coordinated and highly automated. Thierry Thebaud, Logistics Manager at U LOG, is responsible for ensuring it stays that way. As the person in charge of stock management and automation, his goal is to get the ripened bananas in and out of the warehouses and into the stores within 24 hours with the least possible impact on the environment or the quality of the produce. With the support of IFCO expertise, the handling of heavy and complex banana deliveries from the country of origin through to retail outlets across France has been turned into a safe, smooth and sustainable logistics operation.

U LOG is the logistics arm of Système U, the fourth largest food distribution group in France and in the French Overseas Territories. A cooperative of independent retailers, Système U brings together Hyper U, Super U, U Express and Utile brands, from hypermarkets over 10,000m2 to local convenience stores with 400m2. The group also includes U Enseigne, which focuses on sales.

Despite the diversity of operations, the separate entities are united in a common mission. Their overriding sustainability strategy is to reduce food loss and waste along the fresh grocery supply chain, limit single-use packaging and reduce food miles. As such, this focus perfectly aligns with the overall ESG (Environmental, Society, Governance) strategy of IFCO. This mutual commitment is also crucial for the successful long-term partnership and a reason why Système U views IFCO as a key partner to achieving those goals.

Bananas: more automated, more sustainable supply chain

In the case of bananas, Système U is mainly focused on preserving product quality, which requires improved control of the ripening process, as well as on minimizing rejections and maximizing automation. Limiting single-use packaging in the banana supply chain plays an increasingly important role in meeting the cooperative’s overall sustainability goals. All aspects are covered by the innovative design and share-and-reuse SmartCycle™ pooling system with the state-of-the-art IFCO Banana Lift Lock.

Each year, hundreds of millions of crates pass through the many warehouses operated by U LOG for Système U, delivering produce to thousands of retail outlets of various shapes and sizes, from huge hypermarkets to local convenience stores. Much of the logistics processes is fully automated and designed to handle a full range of fresh fruit and vegetables in IFCO RPCs, as well as vacuum-packed meat.

As bananas are among the biggest selling items on the fruit and vegetable aisles in the stores under Système U, it’s essential for the business that the logistics flow of this particular product is kept on track, delivering high-quality produce to the standards expected by the consumers at every point of sales.

How purposeful innovation improves standards

Thebaud is convinced the success of the partnership lies very much in the innovative technology and solid expertise of both parties that combine to ensure the just-in-time sourcing process is maintained. Much like IFCO, Système U has made it a priority to invest in technology that safeguards the continuity of the logistics and the safety of the personnel.

What makes the benefits of IFCO’s unique all-round solution particularly compelling for Système U? "The IFCO Banana Lift Lock improves the quality of pallet storage and boosts automation efficiency in the logistics operations," explains Thebaud. "Most importantly, the IFCO team supported the U LOG team throughout the trials and beyond, but especially during the preparatory phase, namely in the configuration of the robots," he adds. Given the scale of the operations and the geographical coverage, Thebaud highlights that getting this stage right is a crucial factor in the long-term success of automated warehouse logistics.

Franck Tatibouët, Head of National Purchases Fruit and Vegetables at U Enseigne, the sales arm under Système U, is in full agreement. In his view, the complete packaging solutions from IFCO tick all the right boxes. "Thanks to their reusability, the IFCO RPCs improve our carbon footprint and reduce our solid waste. It is also important for us to work with IFCO from an environmental perspective, but also because IFCO RPCs support automated processes," he adds.

A positive experience

Not only are Thebaud and Tatibouët happy to be meeting their sustainability goals, they both believe the IFCO innovative solutions have led to considerable improvements in their operations overall. "Our experience with IFCO has been so positive that we are looking into using IFCO RPCs for other fresh produce," says Thebaud. "In my opinion, there are still far too many fresh fruits and vegetables in the fresh supply chain that are transported in packaging of a poor quality that is harmful for the environment."