FDBusiness.com

Coca‑Cola Enterprises Ltd (CCE) and Tesco have joined forces to beat off strong competition and win the first ever ECR Europe Award for the best collaborative project at the annual ECR Europe Conference held in Brussels on 14‑15 May 2013.

The award was open to all companies and individuals working in Europe’s fast moving consumer goods industry. It was introduced to promote partnership through the supply chain and to recognise the best implementation of a collaborative practice or programme within Europe.

CCE and Tesco were selected to represent the UK by the ECR UK board, containing over 30 leading retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers. They were pitched against 14 other European countries.

A panel of independent judges selected 5 finalists: Kraft and Lekkerland (Germany); Unilever and Marinopoulos (Greece); Mars, Heinz and retailers (Netherlands); Coca Cola and Tesco (UK); and Carrefour, Coca Cola, P&G, Nestlé and Chep (Italy).

Each presented their projects in a special session at the ECR Europe conference with delegates voting for the best project.

Wendy Manning, Customer Logistics Director GB at CCE and Tesco’s Supply Chain Director, Tony Mitchell, took to the stage to reveal details of an imaginative and innovative project that involved a 12 month job swap between ‘rising stars’ in the Tesco and CCE supply chain teams; Mark Honey, Promotions & Events Manager at Tesco and Samantha White, Network Allocation Manager at CCE.

Tony Mitchell commented: “Our teams already worked closely together and had a strong relationship, but we knew we could never fully appreciate the challenges each other face without experiencing it first‑hand.   We wanted to do something radically different that would give us greater insight and have a lasting impact on the way we work as a team and with our suppliers. The opportunity to trade roles for a year was one the team embraced and during the placement both Mark and Samantha completely immersed themselves in their new roles and the host company’s culture.”

Wendy Manning added: “For Tony and I, for the individuals involved and, most of all, for our respective businesses, the ‘job swap’ was an unqualified success. We have been able to embrace a business relationship that is much more than skin deep; it’s open, it’s honest, and it’s more intimate. We now have people in our teams who have direct experience of one another’s challenges which will continue to make a huge difference to the mutual understanding between us and how we work together in the future.”

The award was presented at a gala dinner.

ECR Europe Managing Director Vincent Carton and member of the judging panel said:

“The judges were delighted by the number and standard of entries for the first year of these awards. They covered all the ECR focus areas of supply, demand, sustainability and people development, demonstrating the strength and depth of collaboration across Europe. The winning entry from the UK was particularly inspiring, showing how partnerships can be taken to a new level.”

As the award winner, the ‘job swap’ initiative will now be written up as a Case Study for possible academic publication. The ECR UK board is also using it as a blueprint to help develop a new generation of collaborative supply chain professionals.