Princess Anne Bibby

Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal has officially opened Bibby Distribution’s 212,00ft2 DC in Corby, Northamptonshire.

The site, in Max park, will act as a central hub for Bibby’s operations in the East Midlands and is also a second Primary Consolidation Centre (PCC) for supermarket Morrisons.

Paul Kavanagh, MD of Bibby Distribution, said: “Our Corby site is a crucial component of our ongoing commitment to developing flexible and innovative services for our customers. Our first two PCCs have already cut inventory costs to Morrisons by £6m and when all five centres are open by the end of 2015, we expect to have increased that to £20m,while improving on-shelf availability.”

Bibby has developed a PCC for Morrisons that sees it consolidate stock near its suppliers before sending out multi-SKU loads to RDCs throughout the UK.

The 15 acre site, includes a three-bay warehouse with 16 dock levellers and two level-access doors. It has the capacity for more than 30,000 pallets and is also home to goods handled on behalf of Japanese food manufacturer customer Mizkan.

Bibby is also a long-term supporter of TransAid, the charity of which Her Royal Highness is the patron. She said: “Bibby has supported Transaid for more than a decade. It is a real bonus for a charity to have that continuity of funding. The impact Bibby has made by helping Transaid to train drivers in Africa is very significant.”

She added: “Bibby has been an enormous part of the logistics industry and has helped to set high standards for the sector. Corby is well placed and well served by infrastructure and I am sure this will add to the reputation of Bibby.”