Tesco sets up shipping centre at Bitec

“During this crisis, the company will use this temporary centre to process up to 500,000 cases of products a day next week, up from the current daily capacity of about 300,000 cases,” operations director James Scott said yesterday.
 

The 20,000-square-metre exhibition hall at Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre was modified last week to become a storage facility for daily necessities including water, instant noodles and canned fish. It will be in service for 20 days while the company restores its two key distribution centres in Ayutthaya’s Wang Noi district and Nonthaburi’s Bang Bua Thong district by next month. They were both severely hit by the run-off.
 

The company has also set up emergency hubs in Chiang Mai, Lamphun, Khon Kaen and Surat Thani while using diverse transport modes such as trains, trucks and planes.
 

Distribution director Dusit Panmanee said trains carrying products from many manufacturers such as Unilever, P&G and Unicharm would depart from Phaholyothin Railway Station. They will transport 800 pallets a day to Surat Thani and 400 each to Khon Kaen and Chiang Mai. It is also considering opening a route to Ubon Ratchathani.
 

The company also partnered with Thai Airways to fly 500 tonnes of products from Suvarnabhumi Airport every day since October 19. There are seven flights daily to Chiang Mai and one or two daily to Phuket and to Hat Yai.
 

UK-based Tesco has sent Alan Wrigley, an international development manager, to assist local management along with 250 staff at Bitec and the other employees at the four upcountry hubs.
Tesco in Malaysia is providing 3 million litres of water and 8 million packs of noodles, which have already started to arrive in stores across the country.
 

Tesco will use its global sourcing team based in Hong Kong to bring in water, noodles, canned fish, eggs and UHT (ultra-high-temperature-treated) milk from Malaysia, mainland China and Vietnam.
 

“Although the company imports essential products from overseas and transport costs might soar, we will not raise prices during this crisis,” Scott said.
 

The company has donated more than Bt23 million worth of staples to the flood-relief effort that is helping communities in 40 provinces and made available Bt25 million to support its staff who were affected by the flood.
 

Despite the crisis, the company hopes that business will return to normal. It is also continuing its expansion plan including opening stores, converting more hypermarkets to the “Extra” format and launching Asia’s first “zero carbon” store in Chon Buri’s Bangpra, Sri Racha, later this year.