Podfather helps Real Wrap Co manage fast-growing delivery business

The company, which operates a fleet of over 50 3.5-tonne vans, 18-tonne lorries and articulated trucks, has doubled its output of ready-made sandwiches, wraps and light meals since the pandemic, when it was forced to diversify.

Real Wrap Co was established in 2012 by two lifelong friends who, having started selling bacon sandwiches to workers during their school holidays, opened their first healthy fast-food shop in Bristol in 2010. 

In 2012 the company was supplying all University of West of England sites and had opened a small production kitchen.

By 2019 Real Wrap had a full production facility in Avonmouth, had a contract to supply NHS hospitals across Wales and was ranked first on The University Caterers Organisation’s preferred supplier list. At the time the company had a staff of over 200 and was producing 15 million products a year.

Peter Elliott, project operations manager, said: ”Like many companies, when Covis hit, we lost two-thirds of our business as core sectors we supplied, such as education and airlines, just shut down.

“So, we diversified and secured a contract with Bridgend Council to supply meal boxes to families in need. However, logistically this was a very different operation to the one we were used to and we knew we needed some help if we were to successfully deliver 4,500 boxes of food, a week, to private households across rural Wales.”

Having reviewed a number of systems, Real Wrap selected Podfather’s logistics planning, route optimisation and ePOD software, which the company said is straightforward and easy to use, as well as meeting its requirements.

At the start of each shift all drivers, employed or agency, are required to undertake vigorous vehicle checks guided by the Podfather driver app. This ensures Real Wrap’s fleet is safe to operate and ready to go. It also provides early notification of any potential maintenance issues.

Delivery manifests are sent directly from Podfather to the drivers’ mobile devices and the vehicles roll out of both the Avonmouth and newly opened Aylesbury depots to make between 500 and 2,000 deliveries a day. As the delivery schedule unfolds the Podfather app provides real-time updates giving customer service staff total visibility and the intelligence to keep customers up-to-date and informed in case of issues.

Podfather is also helping Real Wrap further improve its green credentials with paper-free Proof of Delivery workflows and improved vehicle management.  

Two years after all Covid restrictions were lifted in the UK, Real Wrap now employs over 500 staff and produces more than 90,000 products a day equating to more than 30 million a year and is still using the Podfather system. 

The company said the biggest continuing impact on Real Wrap’s delivery workflows is the ability to easily capture and record evidence of deliveries made using Podfather’s electronic Proof of Delivery features.

Using mobile devices, running the Podfather app, each driver can take photographs of deliveries as they are made, which are automatically date, time and location stamped. 

Drivers also capture signatures, other details and record any anomalies between the items ordered and delivered. This process is also used by Real Wrap to manage collection of partner branded products from their production centre. 

“The ePOD information that Podfather allows us to capture, access and share is available, in real-time, and accessible from any internet connected device for customer reporting and query resolution, to prove compliance with food safety standards and for KPI and financial monitoring,” Elliott said. 

As the Podfather POD process is entirely digital, and therefore paper free, this is also further improving Real Wrap’s green potentials with an estimated saving of around two million printed sheets a year and a cost to the business of many thousands of pounds. 

 Elliott concluded: “We have a number of values that are core to the way we do business, We are passionate about looking after our people and the planet as we grow and we are on a sustainable mission to reduce our impact. Podfather helps us achieve these goals. Using Podfather we look after our drivers, we provide the best service to our customers and we minimise the damage we do to the planet.”