Who gave away advent?

Simarco Gloucester recently met up with Councillor Charlotte Mills from Tewkesbury Borough Council to donate chocolate advent calendars to ‘Friends of Castle Hill’, a fundraising group based at Castle Hill Primary School’, Gloucester. The group are an integral part of the school and are often found raising money for school resources and equipment.

Over the next few weeks our passionate Gloucester team will be gifting festive foods in donation for the Brockworth ‘Christmas Hamper Campaign’ run by Tewkesbury Borough Council; the campaign ensures that less fortunate families in the local community enjoy Christmas.

Team Simarco will continue to support our local communities in and around the UK “Promoting and encouraging involvement in local sustainability initiatives and charities” as part of our ongoing sustainability strategy.

Christmas Departures 2023

Deliver with Simarco this Christmas! Follow here for further information on our Christmas import and export schedule.

*Deliveries subject to customs clearance*

Simarco prevents 148.91 tCO2e emissions – the equivalent to 369,446 miles driven in a car.

114 long haul flights, 447 metres² of sea ice or 369,446 miles driven by car is the equivalent to the 148.91 tCO₂e emissions we have helped prevent over the course of eighteen months with our continued dedication to the support of the eCologi project.

With supply chain sustainability at the forefront of our company vision in February 2022 we enrolled with environmental and climate positive business, eCologi. With our dedication to reduce our carbon footprint and increase our sustainability impact, we are proud to announce that we have supported twenty-six eCologi carbon avoidance projects around the world.

Amongst the twenty-six projects, we are delighted to report that we have aided:

1. 13.53tCO₂e for the Wind Power Project in Mexico
2. 8.1 tCO₂e for the Generating Electricity from Landfill Gas Project in Brazil
3. 6.97 tCO₂e for the Distributing Cleaner Cookstoves project in Kenya
4. 6 tCO₂e by generating power from waste in India.

As we continue to support eCologi, we carry on playing a vital role in the reduction of greenhouse gases and its impact on climate change, and its social, environmental, and economic impacts around the world.

Simarco receive Grade AA BRC Accreditation for second consecutive year.

We are delighted to announce that the BRC have accredited us with a grade AA rating for our high standards in the compliance of our storage, quality, and distribution of food related products and services.

The BRC, a Global Food Safety Initiative is a worldwide accreditation that ensures companies meet the highest levels of food safety standards.

Achieving the BRC AA Accreditation demonstrates our dedication to the operations of the global food supply chain. This accreditation allows us to work with our valued customers and provides reassurance to them and any future customers that their supply chain goals will be met with the highest level of care, attention, and compliance.

Head of UK & European Warehousing, Steve Pyne said, “We are extremely proud of the hard work and dedication that our committed team achieve daily; the results have meant that we have been awarded the BRC accredited AA grade rating for the second consecutive year. This fantastic achievement means we continue to be globally recognised for our high standards in food related storage and distribution services.”

It takes an incredible team to make a difference.

“Supply Chain Sustainability at Simarco extends beyond our carbon footprint and is the responsibility of all members of the Simarco community.”

Over the past month we have celebrated our Simarco Community Sustainability event; a small act to protect our environment and make a difference in and around our local communities.

A group of passionate Simarco volunteers stepped out into the local community to help keep our local areas environmentally clean and tidy. Alongside our clean-up campaign team Simarco also spent a week collecting food donations for vulnerable people who are affected by the recent increases in the costs of living, with donations being delivered to local food banks.

Our mission is to create a sustainable world around us and prioritise people, planet, and prosperity. We strongly believe that this is the only way that we and our business partners can continue to be successful in the long term. 

We are taking immediate and effective measure to achieve our sustainability objectives while delivering a range of projects under our supply chain sustainability banner, which will have a positive impact on environment, society, and economy. 

Some of our projects include:

• Using HVO (Hydrotreated Bio-Fuel) as an alternative fuel
• Green Energy lighting at our distribution centres
• Reducing waste by using reduced and renewable packaging
• Helping our planet by planting trees

We are committed to reducing our emissions by 59% by 2035 (SBTi approved) in line with our net-zero commitment. 

Simarco Food Donations Reach UK’s Food Banks

This month, in support of those affected by the recent cost of living increases, our Sustainability Champions and Employee Engagement team worked together to run food donation points across all Simarco and PFS sites.

Mid-year statistics published by The Trussell Trust, a charity that provides support and food to people in need has reported that between April 2022 and March 2023 the number of people who have used a foodbank for the first time has increased by 760,000 which in turn means that the trust has issued 2,986,203 emergency food parcels over the 12-month period.

With one in five of the UK population living below the poverty line we wanted to show our dedication and support to our local communities by donating food goods, toiletries, baby items and pet food to donation centres across the UK.

Our donations helped local centres including, The Food Bank, Stoke-on-Trent, FIND (Families in Need), Suffolk, St. Nichols Church, Witham, Trinity Food Bank, Radcliffe and Gloucester Food Bank, Gloucester.

We will continue to support local communities in and around the UK – “Promoting and encouraging involvement in local sustainability initiatives and charities” as part of our ongoing sustainability strategy.

World BMX Champion Ruby Moores wins her first national championship title.

Following her success in achieving world number 5 in the UCI BMX World Championships earlier this summer, Simarco sponsored Ruby Moores has now won her first national championship title at the National BMX Series in Manchester.

Ruby’s BMX race season ended on a triumph this month as she won her final two rounds at Manchester BMX Indoor Arena. Winning five out of the eight rounds meant she sped away with her first national champion title.

Team Simarco, along with Ruby’s family are extremely proud of her achievements and we can’t wait to see what lies ahead for her next up and coming BMX season. Congratulations Ruby!

BMX Champion Ruby Moores Achieves World Number 5!

BMX champion and Simarco sponsored Ruby Moores achieves world number 5 in the UCI BMX World Championships earlier this month.

Twelve-year-old Ruby Moores competed in the UCI BMX World Championships located in Glasgow, Scotland on Tuesday, 8^th August. With her dedication and commitment to the sport Ruby won three motos and came second place in her semi-final; resulting in a world number 5!

Ruby’s mum, Sarah said “Ruby was so strong and relaxed during her quarter finals; she was amazing all day. Ruby needed a top 4 position in the semis to qualify for the World Finals which is where she sadly got knocked out last year. Ruby was over the moon to make 2^nd place in the semi-finals this year which means we now have a world number 5!”

Team Simarco would like to wish Ruby a massive congratulations and as always, continue to support Ruby in her BMX future.  

Italian Services Are Back Up And Running

Following the traditional August downturn in logistics services to and from Italy, Simarco’s road freight team are delighted to confirm that our Italian export groupage services are now fully operational.

Twice-weekly direct trailer services, operated through both our Witham and Stoke depots, are back up and running to and from multiple hubs, including Milan, Verona, Bologna, Genoa, Florence, Rome and Naples.

Through these strategic locations we are able to provide cost effective collection and delivery solutions, for groupage and part loads, to and from all major towns and cities throughout Italy.

In conjunction with our exclusive partnership arrangements in the country, we are also able to offer customs and warehousing solutions, which couple seamlessly with our fulfilment capabilities throughout the UK.

Our sales team are able to offer competitive rates, and would be delighted to hear from you should you require further information. Therefore, please do not hesitate to contact us using the details below.

Customs Rollback CDS Export Deadline To March

UK Customs have recently confirmed that the deadline for transitioning exports from CHIEF to CDS has been rolled back until 30th March 2024.

CDS (Customs Declaration Service) is HM Customs latest software for processing declarations and performing customs related functions. This replaces the CHIEF system, which has been in operation for thirty years and is being phased out.

Imports moved over to CDS in September 2022, and at that time the plan was for exports to follow in March this year. However, HMRC have now extended that deadline twice.

According to their website notice, they have listened to feedback and have now decided to ‘phase’ CDS exports in. Therefore, for the vast majority of exporters, CHIEF will remain in place until March 2024, but a few high volume declarants will be starting to using CDS from November.

The full notice can be viewed on the .gov website HERE.

If you require more information on CDS, or would like to find out about our customs declaration services, then please do not hesitate to contact us.