OREANDA-NEWS. On 23 December 2008 was announced, that METRO Group Logistics (MGL) Ukraine, a cross divisional company serving METRO Group companies in Ukraine signed a three-year cooperation agreement with the logistics company Raben Ukraine, a part of Raben Group (Holland).

The agreement signed according to the results of the tender held by MGL in the first half of 2008 foresees the extension of the existing cross-docking platform in Dnipropetrovs’k run by Raben Ukraine and opening of a separate cross-docking platform in Kyiv.

The Kyiv platform with an area of 5.000 sq.m. and capacity of several thousands pallets for daily throughput is located in the urban village of Velyka Dymerka, Brovarskiy district on the basis of Raben class “A” warehouse. In addition to cross-dock project METRO Cash & Carry will store products in the “A” class central warehouse of Raben Ukraine using an area of 9.000 sq.m. and a capacity of more than 10.000 pallets.

The cooperation of the companies began in 2006 with establishment of the distribution platform for fresh products which guarantees the controlled temperature from +2 to +6 C0 within whole storage and transportation process.

In 2007 Raben Ukraine won the tender for creating a separate cross-docking platform for METRO Cash & Carry Ukraine in Dnipropetrovs’k with the capacity of several hundreds pallets for daily throughput on the area of more than 1.000 sq.m. Now more than 50 METRO Cash & Carry suppliers deliver their products through this platform. On monthly basis it serves more than 4.000 of pallets to METRO Cash & Carry wholesale stores all around Ukraine within maximum 48 hours from the moment of loading.

“Our positive experience of partnership with Raben Ukraine gives us confidence to extend our successful cooperation. With a professional logistics provider we can guarantee synchronized, consolidated and punctual deliveries. We will focus in particular on the best possible stock availability and ensuring high quality products in fresh categories by a jointly optimized cooling chain to serve better and more effectively the professional customers in all currently operating 23 METRO Cash & Carry stores.” - said Michal Janikowski, Managing Director of MGL Ukraine.

Within the new contract Raben Ukraine will deliver monthly up to 45.000 pallets from more than 500 suppliers, which will help to consolidate and standardize delivery processes to all METRO Cash & Carry stores in Ukraine. Both platforms will receive electronic orders from METRO suppliers via Internet registration, which contributes to high speed and quality of order processing.

“We are happy to strengthen and extend our cooperation with MGL. It has always been and will remain our absolute priority to ensure the timely and complete deliveries to all our Clients, among which METRO Cash & Carry is one of the biggest ones. For such purpose we use our own know-how and more than 75 years of Raben Group experience in logistics market.” – said Andrzej Kozlowski, Managing Director of Raben Ukraine.