International operations

In a bid to cut costs, large firms are increasingly turning to global sourcing. Instead of purchasing from wholesalers or distributors locally, major cost savings are being achieved by purchasing product directly from manufacturers in low-cost locations and through consolidating the number of suppliers to use fewer, larger global players. The trade-off is longer, more complex supply chains, with purchaser and manufacturer often separated by thousands of miles. This increases lead times between order and delivery and can make on-time delivery and quality assurance more difficult.

Gist works with companies either involved in or considering global sourcing. We work with businesses to:

• understand their business and their goals
• analyse their end to end supply chain to understand the implications of changing to global sourcing
• identify ways in which their supply chain can be reconfigured and managed to gain maximum value from global sourcing

Gist Van Dongen

In 2005, Gist significantly extended its primary business across Europe with the acquisition of G Van Dongen Holdings BV, a European temperature-controlled transport operator.

This European operation is known as Gist Van Dongen, and provides fresh/chill and ambient transport services across Europe from nine operating centres. Their current customers include Flowerplus, Fritolay, Maersk, and Tetrapak.