British express delivery company City Link has won a prestigious £3 million contract to deliverwine across the UK on behalf of the world’s largest home delivery wine merchant.
Under the terms of the contract, City Link will collect consignments from the LaithwaitesWine distribution centre in Gloucester and deliver across the UK, with the shipments accounting foralmost one-third of the volume of Laithwaites Wine business.
Laithwaites Wine will use all of City Link’s services, with 48 hour delivery as standard, andpremium services such as next day delivery being offered to customers as an option.
Retailing direct to the public as Laithwaites Wine, Sunday Times Wine Club and a number ofcorporate wine clubs, Laithwaites Wine despatches more than three million deliveries a year.
Lee Andreas, Carrier Operations Manager UK and Ireland for Laithwaites Wine, said: “Theimprovements in technology which City Link has introduced over the last couple of years have givenus the opportunity to enhance our customer service offering.
“We chose City Link because we are confident that they will deliver first time, every timefor us successfully. Additionally the new MyCityLink service gives us a much higher level ofvisibility than would normally be experienced in the market: it is a superior service.”
Duncan Faithfull, Sales & Marketing Director, City Link, said: “We are delighted to beworking with Laithwaites Wine and look forward to a long and fruitful partnership with them. CityLink has invested heavily in new technology and we believe we now offer the best service in themarket.”
Launched this year, MyCityLink empowers customers – at a click of a mouse – to monitor thestatus of all their parcels in the City Link network in near real time, as well as track individualconsignments. As the information is up-to-date and accurate, clients are empowered to be able toupdate their own customers about the progress of individual consignments. A first in the expressdelivery sector, MyCityLink was developed at a cost of more than £250,000 and can be accessed fromany computer anywhere in the world that is connected to the internet.
With its caged network, electronic Trailer Trackers on its curtain-sided fleet and VanCamsecurity cameras being introduced to its delivery vans, City Link is also well on the way torealising its ambition to offer the most secure network in the sector.
