Sevalco, is part of the Columbian Chemicals group, based in Marietta, Georgia, which has over 1,400 employees in 11 countries, covering all major regions of the globe. Sevalco are the second largest manufacturer of carbon black in the world. The Avonmouth factory produces a range of carbon black powders for use in products such as paint, tyres, inks, plastics and many others.
Product is distributed in bulk using powder tankers or bagged in both Intermediate Bulk Containers and conventional paper sacks, all of the bagged product is palletised. The bagged product requires very careful handling and storage, damage has traditionally been a problem for Sevalco, the smallest tear in a bag can render a whole pallet of product unacceptable due to the contamination caused by product leakage.
Bridgeway first began supplying transport services to Sevalco in 2002, a few trial loads to the Manchester area were successful and fairly rapidly led to Bridgeway becoming a major supplier for full load traffic. The majority of collections and deliveries are timed and require careful management to ensure customer satisfaction. Sevalco were very happy with both the levels of service and a significant fall in damage complaints.
Because of the success with full load traffic Bridgeway were asked several times if it would take on the distribution of the smaller palletised consignments. A number of hauliers had been tried and discarded by Sevalco who were unhappy with both the number of late deliveries and product damage. They were very concerned that their sales were suffering because of the poor service. Bridgeway agreed to take on this work, and have successfully negotiated with a pallet network to ensure that Sevalco receive an outstanding service with negligible damages and accurate, on time deliveries.
Bridgeway now provides a complete service for the small consignments that includes booking in deliveries directly with customers, arranging returns and handling all of the short notice and sameday deliveries. Sevalco are delighted that at last they have been able to improve their customer service and reduce the incidence of damage by using Bridgeway Freighting. This is particularly important at the moment because the huge recent increases in the cost of oil have put even greater emphasis on the control of waste and maximising customer service.