Cool for School

Supplying free-of-charge fridges to over 15,000 schools in just one month is a staggering logistical achievement and one of which Public sector at Comet is rightly proud.  This remarkable project proves beyond doubt Public sector at Comet ability not only to provide quality, value-for-money products in large quantities, but also in timescales that others can only dream about.  Philip Cunliffe describes how it was achieved and learns what it means to the schools themselves.

It is now a well-established fact that schoolchildren have not been eating the recommended daily amount of fruit and vegetables. In recent years, thanks in part to high-profile campaigns by the likes of Jamie Oliver, there has been a great deal of attention paid to school food.  The Government has now set new standards for school dinners while, at local level, there are a host of projects focusing on improving diets of children at home. 

It is certainly true that – with or without Mr Oliver – the Government has recognised it needs to encourage our children to adopt better food in-take and the benefits of doing so are clear: fruit and vegetables are a good source of vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre, and including more fruit and vegetables as part of a balanced diet will help children grow and develop, and also improve vitality.  Minimum food standards have therefore been set – for example, at least one portion of fruit and one portion of vegetables or salad must be provided per pupil per day is the food-based standard for lunch provision.

Sadly, too many school meals services have acquired a reputation for being unhealthy, with the emphasis in many cases being on cost-saving and on responding to whims of the children rather than providing healthy food options. Offering a range of choices is important and school meals must compete with the temptations of off-site, possibly less healthy, food outlets – the need to offer fresh, attractive, tasty, nutritious food on-site has never been greater.

School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme

The government White Paper entitled Choosing Health, identified the need to promote healthier choices for schoolchildren, especially those at primary school age. The School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme (SFVS) was established to help towards meeting this need. The Department of Health, through its agency NHS Supply Chain, distributes fruit and vegetables to all schools with children at Key Stage 1 – over 2 million children aged 4 to 6 years.

The Challenge

At the start of 2008, DH – which is charged with co-ordinating the supply of food to schools – had a contract with major distributor and wholesaler, Minor Weir & Willis, which saw the company make three deliveries to every school every week.  The cost of this, however, was both financial and environmental in terms of carbon footprint and DH felt that fewer deliveries would make significant savings.

It quickly became apparent, however, that cutting down on deliveries meant that maintaining the freshness of the fruit and vegetables was a clear issue which must be addressed. The answer was the use of on-site fridges.  Not only would they maintain the freshness of products for longer but they also would open the opportunity to provide other chilled and more exotic fruits which would mean a wider and more attractive range of choices for the pupils.  Moreover, it was estimated that some £5m savings would be made to the DH’s carbon footprint by cutting down on deliveries. 

The Solution

Comet is a well-recognised electrical retailer with a reputation for delivering value for money.  Behind the very public face of its nation-wide chain of stores is Public sector at Comet – the business to business division which was established over 20 years ago to provide public sector departments with the electrical products and associated services required to run a business successfully.

Public sector at Comet was therefore approached to see whether a deal could be struck for the company to supply fridges – at little or no cost to schools. This was a considerable challenge but Public sector at Comet was impressed by the SVCS and its aim of making a significant difference to school’s food procurement programme. The company rose to the challenge!

Social Responsibility

Comet has been actively pursuing projects that support the social infrastructure in the UK for some time now.  For example, in 2000 it was one of the founding partners of Renew North East, a non-profit company providing high-quality vocational training, for people who are long-term unemployed, in the re-manufacture and recycling of white goods donated by the company.  Comet is also currently working with Becta and the eLearning Foundation on the Laptops for Pupils scheme.

With its strong links to fridge manufacturers in China, Comet was able to use its existing contractual arrangements to drive down unit costs for the fridges.  Not only that, it was able to offer bespoke, A-rated Proline fridges to the schools  with a choice of shelving units and other specifications which meant that each school could make maximum use of the fridge to fit its own particular needs.  The Department for Children Schools and Families has written advice on the use of fridges for schools which suggests that they should be large enough to store the ingredients for at least one class, and that freestanding larder fridges are ideal.  The participating schools chose the fridge that best suited them and ordered them through NHS Supply Chain.

A Responsible Supply Chain – A Statement from Comet

Whether we are dealing with major brands or sourcing from elsewhere we ensure that our products have been tested for safety, health and environmental issues. At the same time our policy is to work in partnership with our suppliers to help them reduce their impact on the environment and to manage the challenges of sustainable growth.

Welfare

We source products exclusively from factories that are committed to improving workers’ welfare and reducing environmental impact. We believe that every link of the supply chain should benefit from the trade in our products and this would be undermined if our suppliers’ manufacturing production was operating at the expense of the quality of life of those involved.

Our quality team based in Shenzhen, China carries out regular factory audits to ensure that they meet the strict social, environmental and supply chain standards we require. We know the identity of all our suppliers and the location of where their products are being manufactured.

Quality

The team also carries out random inspections of goods before shipments to ensure that quality standards are being maintained. They co-ordinate new product development, which includes, communicating between quality engineers in Shenzhen and our quality assurance laboratory based in the UK.

Transport

Within Comet’s transport division there are a number of activities underway to help us do our bit for the environment, such as:

• Fitting home delivery vehicles with the new Euro 4 engine technology
• Using innovative curved roof double-deck teardrop trailers to allow a more aerodynamic airflow, thus reducing fuel consumption by up to 1.5 miles per gallon
• Configuring our home delivery trucks (7.5 tonnes) so that their top speed is 56 mph – resulting in huge diesel savings
• Introducing new software ‘Sidewinder’ which plans the most effective routes for our delivery and service vehicles, saving 700,000 miles over the year.

The Contract

Negotiations between Public sector at Comet and DH began in September 2008 and were completed in May 2009, with an overall, one-off price for the fridges – including delivery, installation and extended warranties – of £2.9m.  All the qualifying schools were written to by DH and, once the school agreed to receive a fridge, then the contact details were passed on to Public sector at Comet. Of the 16,600 schools which were eligible for the fridges, only 1,000 refused them (mainly, one assumes, due to the fact that they already had sufficient refrigeration), so uptake of the offer was extremely high.

Public sector at Comet therefore contacted 15,600 individual schools to arrange a suitable date and time for the fridges to be delivered.  Part of the negotiated deal with DH included strict Service Level Agreements which entailed the company developing standard procedures, including ensuring that all the fridges were delivered, fully installed and tested in situ.  In addition, it agreed to take away any existing fridge that the school had no further use for, plus each new fridge unit carries an extended warranty for additional peace of mind for the school. Further, Public sector at Comet has proved that the project will be carbon neutral within two years.

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive

When WEEE came into force in July 2007, designated collection facilities were set up throughout the UK to allow people to recycle their electrical and electronic equipment. Comet financially contributed to the development of these WEEE collection points, as part of the Distributor Take Back Scheme (DTS). Separately, it had already been working with Wincanton on collecting and recycling large electrical items when a replacement product is delivered.

From 1st July 2007, Comet expanded this collection and recycling service for large electrical items so that everyone, not just Comet customers can benefit. For a standard charge of £20.00 Comet will take away your item for recycling, regardless of where you purchased it.  Comet is the first electrical specialist to offer this universal service in the UK and believes that by making it easier for customers to recycle unwanted electrical goods it will assist the government’s waste and landfill reduction targets.

To date, through its collection service, Comet has recycled more than 3.5 million electrical items, from fridges to dishwashers. Other product stewardship initiatives include offering customers the opportunity to recycle their old inkjet cartridges and mobile phones by placing special envelopes in-store.

The schools themselves were naturally more than happy to receive a quality, state-of-the-art fridge free of charge.  Roy Morgan, Head Teacher of Northcote Primary School in Liverpool, is full of praise for the Public sector at Comet initiative:  “We are delighted with the fridge we received from Comet Business Services – it is in good working order and perfectly meets our requirements.  It provides a longer shelf-life for our food and is therefore entirely fit for purpose.  Another benefit for us is that we are significantly reducing the amount of food that we are discarding, which better meets national standards that we have been set.”

Food Procurement Issues

Food procurement and the food supply chain are issues with which government has been particularly charged across all sectors.  In recent years, the Government has established the Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative (PSFPI) which recognises that there are countless issues (environmental, social, economic and health-related) associated with what we grow, how we transport it and how we dispose of it – all of which should be taken into account by procurers of food in all areas of government activity (e.g. schools and hospitals).

Defra, in conjunction with the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), is responsible for PSFPI activity and has developed a raft of guidance notes and reports on the issue, whilst OGC is developing a strategic sourcing plan for food and is engaging with government stakeholders in this process.  OGC is also leading on developing a collaborative approach to food procurement so that government can gain maximum value for money from suppliers of food and catering products and services.

Today’s businesses are expected to have high standards of social conduct and to take increasing responsibility for the direct and indirect effects of their operations. As a company we understand and respond to any sensitivities about the origin and production of the products we sell. It is also clear that ethical business practice makes good commercial sense.

Supply Chains

The success of the free fridge project was, in part, down to a highly effective supply chain – efficient from manufacture, through distribution and installation, to end-of-life, responsible disposal. Due to the size and coverage of major public procurement contracts, a good deal of focus must inevitably fall on how effectively supply chains perform and how well they are managed.  Much work has been done to ensure prime contractors take responsibility for the service – including environmental, ethical and financial issues – which their supply chains provide. 

Mitigating the risk of failure and ensuring the best value-for-money on goods and services is a huge element in all public sector procurement and the Office of Government Commerce has been focused for a number of years on the development of robust and strictly observed risk management procedures.  And government is also trying to open the public sector marketplace up to more and more companies, especially SMEs.  Quite right – but getting value for every penny of taxpayers’ money spent, must be the ultimate goal.

Distribution of goods to a wide range of locations can be a tricky problem for government departments today – supply chains can make or break a delivery deadline. Few companies have the end-to-end infrastructure or logistics to be able to deliver the quality and service levels demanded by the public sector.  

Comet has invested heavily in its logistics and distribution networks and has the expertise and knowledge born of a successful national and international supply chain.   

The free fridges for schools project illustrates, beyond doubt, the company’s ability to successfully manage large, nationwide projects for the public sector.

For more information or to discuss your requirements please call

Public sector at Comet on 0844 499 2828