Bakers Basco, the industry-wide bakery equipment solution set up by five of the UK’s largest plant bakers for transporting bread and morning goods, has reported a 54% increase in the number of Omega bread baskets recovered between the first half of 2020 compared to the second half of the year, according to latest figures.
In March 2020, at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Bakers Basco put an additional £1m worth of equipment into the system to be able to address the demand for bread and baked goods during the first national lockdown, as panic buying put extra pressure on the supply chain for delivering essential food supplies across the UK.
Initially, many household waste and recycling centre locations temporarily halted the collection of some or all recyclable materials, leading to blockages and a build-up of equipment in the supply chain – leaving Bakers Basco’s equipment exposed for longer periods of time, increasing the chances of theft or misappropriation of the equipment.
As lockdown restrictions started to ease, Bakers Basco’s recovery team were able to recover 54% more Omega baskets in the second half of 2020 compared with the first six months of the year and 41% more Omega dollies for the same period.
At the same time, it saw a 53% increase in the total number of visits made by its dedicated recovery team, resulting in improved attrition rates towards the end of 2020, which it hopes will continue into 2021.
