Domino’s dolly proves a supply chain winner for Schoeller Allibert at UK Packaging Awards

Schoeller Allibert claimed top honours and a highly commended award in the Supply Chain Solution of the Year category at this year’s UK Packaging Awards 2021.

During the industry event, held at The Brewery in London, Schoeller Allibert was awarded first place for its dolly solution for foodservice operator and retailer, Domino’s, and was named as a runner-up for its Maxinest eTail crate.

Nick James, Sales Director at Schoeller Allibert UK says: “We are thrilled to be awarded these accolades and they are testament to the degree of innovation and quality that goes into developing our products at Schoeller Allibert.

“The Domino’s dolly demonstrates how we can work closely with a customer to deliver a solution that is truly bespoke and responsive to their requirements. We have a viable supply chain solution that is paying dividends for the client and bringing multiple benfits to their supply chain operations.”

Schoeller Allibert was tasked with creating a recyclable solution that would improve the flow of products from Domino’s distribution centres to franchisee stores and speed up unloading times. Previously, Domino’s used two transit packaging solutions – a steel roll cage for ingredients packed in cardboard boxes, and a dolly for its dough trays. The logistics of manoeuvring and unloading two solutions to each store was complex, costly and time-consuming, as well as labour intensive.

Schoeller Allibert designed a solution that could accommodate both the dough trays and ingredients boxes, significantly reducing the number of transit packaging solutions required. The team developed a lightweight dolly with fixed and swivel wheels to easily manoeuvre up and down kerbs, enabling a smoother, safer and faster delivery process, and so that it would stack neatly and easily for return journeys once unloaded. This means fewer journeys, improved fuel consumption and reduced carbon footprint for Domino’s.

Nick added: “The dolly solution from Schoeller is generating greater efficiencies within the supply chain for Domino’s. Their franchisees are often in hard-to reach places for large delivery vehicles and as a result, space to unload is at a premium. Our solution ticks all the boxes when it comes to streamlining supply chain logistics.

“Additionally, we created a fully recyclable solution and pledged to buy back old or damaged dollies from Domino’s to be recycled and used to fulfil future stock requirements - creating a perfectly closed loop supply chain.”

Judges also praised Schoeller Allibert’s Maxinest eTail solution designed to seamlessly blend the drive towards digital commerce with the evolving sustainability demands of retailers and distributors.

The Maxinest E-tail tote was developed to help future-proof retailer e-commerce operations and is an ideal solution for microfulfilment - a growing trend in the retail sector. The innovative basket can be combined with dividers to ensure multiple customer orders can be stored separately in a single container, making it a highly versatile option for manual and automated handling applications alike.

It has a very high nesting ratio of 80%, meaning return transportation costs and logistics carbon footprints are minimised, and it is fully interoperable with the rest of Schoeller Allibert’s Maxinest family.