Profits, jobs and supply chain news from Robert Wiseman

The company's biggest sales gain came from The Co-operative Group where scheduled extra sales were accelerated following the collapse of Dairy Farmers of Britain and represented the largest ever increase in volumes from one week to the next for the Group. Turnover for the half year to 3 October increased by 7.0% to £423.9 million (2008 : £396.3 million) while pre-tax profit rose by 81.4% to £21 million from £11.6 million in the same period last year. Operationally, the pressure on the company's facilities brought about by the demand for increased volumes would be alleviated when the new Bridgwater dairy increases its volume capacity from 250 million to 375 million litres a year in December. This would also allow for the elimination of Sunday working across RWD's English dairies at the beginning of 2010. Final plans are being developed for the installation of the final phase of production equipment to increase capacity at this site to 500 million litres a year. A new distribution depot at Amesbury in Wiltshire is nearing completion and will result in the creation of up to 300 jobs at this site. However, since the initial volumes to be serviced from this site will be transferred from the depots at Bridgwater and Bristol, there will be a reduction in numbers employed at these depots. In addition, a review of the firm's Okehampton dairy concluded that the site will only be utilised for production and that distribution currently undertaken from there should be transferred to other sites. Projects were currently being undertaken to review supply chain optimisation and to decide if this could be better supported by a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. These initiatives are being conducted with the objective of increasing capacity and efficiency across the entire supply chain. It is anticipated that a decision on the implementation of a new ERP system will be concluded within the next financial year. Chief executive Robert Wiseman said: "With the completion of the investments at Bridgwater dairy and Amesbury depot we are well placed to continue the growth in volumes and to improve operating margins in the medium-term."