News & Monitoring

CERECO is committed to FRET21

Category: news-freight, portraits | Published on : 18/12/20

"Céréco specialises in organic breakfast cereals. We have been focusing on our values of biodiversity, proximity and solidarity for 30 years, but we still had to work in detail on the environmental impact of our transport, supply and distribution," explain Etienne Pacaud, logistics manager, and Clément Barbier, logistics assistant.

PORTRAIT

Organic manufacturer since its origins 30 years ago, the Breton food industrialist Céréco wears its values of biodiversity, solidarity and proximity like a banner. However, it was missing a brick at sustainability : reducing the carbon footprint of its transport. Fret 21 offers the materials to achieve this. "Céréco specialises in organic breakfast cereals. We have been focusing on our values of biodiversity, proximity and solidarity for 30 years, but we still had to work in detail on the environmental impact of our transport, supply and distribution," explain Etienne Pacaud, logistics manager, and Clément Barbier, Céréco's logistics assistant, in the Fret 21 programme, with a very ambitious objective: a 15% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 2022, through a number of actions carried out within the three entities that make up the group. Created 30 years ago by Gérard Le Goff in Domagné, not far from Rennes, the industrialist has indeed grown over the years, with the acquisition ofRouger Production, a manufacturer of biscuits, rice cakes and flat breads, located in Bricquebec (50), and Elcéa, a specialist in cereal flaking located in Mazières-en-Gatine (79). Elcéa receives the cereals and produces the cereal flakes necessary for the production of Céréco. Rouger Production delivers its products to Céréco, which distributes the "Grillon d'or" brand in the network of specialized organic stores, and "Terres et Céréales" in the network of large and medium-sized stores. With Fret 21, Céréco intends to work on the tons/Co2 emissions of all these flows: upstream, downstream and inter-sites. To reduce its emissions by 227 tons/CO2 over 3 years, the biggest project undertaken by Céréco concerns its oat supply. We source most of our oats from France, but also from Germany, Spain and Finland," explains Etienne Pacaud. We want all our oat needs to come from France in the next few years. The action represents 65% of the commitment to the Fret 21 system. The approach taken with Fret 21 is an "eco-economic" approach, in the sense that it focuses on reducing the carbon footprint as well as validating the company's economic model," adds Clément Barbier, who has been studying Céréco's transport for the past two years as part of a Master's degree in work-study, which led to his being hired on a permanent basis at Céréco this summer. The optimization of transport leads to a reduction of the costs related to it. The example of the recent pooling of deliveries between several customers speaks for itself. Instead of delivering to one customer on Tuesday and another on Wednesday, Céréco will now deliver to both customers on the same day, by optimising the Filling Rate of its trucks. Several cities in France will soon benefit from the new organization, which allows the company to reduce its tons/CO2 by reducing the number of trucks on the road, but also the transport costs.

Céréco chooses multimodal and CNG trucks

In this fight at all levels to reduce its carbon footprint, Céréco has also launched a combined rail-road transport system for the delivery of its customers in the south-east of France, with the Rennes-Lyon train line. Committed to a reduction of 27 tons/CO2, the company nevertheless expects to exceed its objectives by multiplying the number of customers delivered in this way. There is no break in the load, because our carrier, Lahaye, moves the swap body from the truck to the train and from the train to the truck," explains Etienne Pacaud. This means that delivery times are not lengthened, and sometimes even shortened. In this segment, the company has also asked its service provider to use CNG trucks for pre- and post-carriage to the freight station. Consideration is also being given to the use of this type of vehicle for inter-site exchanges. In the same vein, the agri-food industrialist now includes in its calls for tenders membership of the "Objectif CO2" charter or label. "The label is not an end in itself. For example, Lahaye has a charter but not a label, even though it offers us CNG vehicles and multimodal transport", moderates the logistics manager, who focuses on the service, price and environmental commitment of his service providers.

A global approach

Céréco's ecological approach is global. In 2000, its Domagné factory was eco-designed from the construction site onwards, right up to the extensions that brought it to its current surface area of 10,000 m2, for production, storage and order preparation. In 2015, the company was awarded the "sustainable organic business" label, offering it, according to the logistics manager, a rigorous framework for implementing all of its values and CSR policy. The Fret21 system therefore represents a new brick in a global sustainable policy and has the full support of the management. About ten people, coming from Céréco, Rouger Production and Elcéa, were part of the team dedicated to Fret 21, with Clément Barbier as referent. "The Transport Manager from Triballat Noyal (Sojasun, Vrai!, Petit Billy,...), a Breton company we got closer to in 2017, also came to help us with the Fret 21 approach, giving us the benefit of his experience on transport optimization, but also to find elements of possible synergies between our two organizations." Having discovered the system on this occasion, this Transport Manager could well envisage Triballat joining Fret 21 in the coming years...