Central England Co-op colleagues have been working around the clock to ensure shelves are stocked full of chocolate treats in time for Easter with record numbers passing through its distribution centre this year.
The team at the Society’s Food Distribution Centre in Leicester have been hard at work since Christmas Eve to make sure that shoppers can enjoy everything from hot cross buns to all different sizes of chocolate eggs.
In the run-up to Easter, the team has helped shift a whopping 350,000 Easter eggs to hundreds of stores – more than ever before – as well as 350,000 bags of Cadbury’s Mini Eggs and over 450,000 Cadbury Crème Eggs.
Over 350,000 hot cross buns have also been delivered from the 120,000 sq ft Food Distribution Centre – the equivalent of six Olympic swimming pools.
Robin Farrell, Head of Distribution and Logistics at Central England Co-operative, said, “Easter is always a busy time for us in distribution, but many people will not know that our planning starts all the way back to Christmas Eve.
“Since then our hard working and dedicated team have been working non-stop to ensure that our customers are able to enjoy all of their favourite treats this Easter when they visit one of our stores.”
Over 300 workers help supply over 215 stores across 16 counties from the Society’s Food Distribution Centre. The Society’s distribution hub is also home to a 42,000 sq ft Chilled Distribution Centre which supplies everything from turkeys and pork pies to double cream and fruit.
This Easter Central England Co-op will again be running a special Easter Food bank Appeal to help people in need. Customers and members are being urged to drop off one or more items – ranging from food to toiletries – into store food banks until 21 April.
The items will then be collected up, turned into parcels with enough food to create meals for three days and distributed to help people in need.