Honda’s parts supply subsidiary, Honda Trading Europe (HTE), has signed a new three-year contract with transport and logistics provider Norbert Dentressangle for warehousing and transport services. HTE was established in 1990 to manage the supply of parts from the Far East to the carmaker’s UK manufacturing operations in Swindon. It also has branch offices in Italy, Belgium, Turkey and Romania.
Norbert Dentressangle has been providing inbound services for the Honda subsidiary for the last two and a half years and, according to the carmaker, has worked closely with HTE to mitigate the effects of both the economic downturn and the natural disasters that marked last year, including the Japanese earthquake and the floods in Thailand.
Reuben Chorley, department manager of the UK Parts Division at Honda Trading Europe said: “Norbert Dentressangle has continued to support our business throughout the difficult production periods we have faced over the past two years and have proven themselves as a valuable partner. We are very happy to have retained their services for another three years and look forward to making further improvements to ensure continued success for both companies.”
The logistics provider transports around 600 containers a year from Southampton to a dedicated 78,000 square foot warehouse in Swindon for feeds into the nearby Honda car plant.
In addition to the storage of parts, Norbert Dentressangle provides component identification and segregation, labelling, lot code traceability, transfer of parts into production line media, lineside packaging control and obsolete stock management.
The company is also responsible for the JIT delivery of parts to the production line in Honda’s engine plant and into the on-site sequencing centre which feeds the main car plant, as well as the national distribution of sub-assembly components to around 40 UK suppliers. It reports 100% record in its quality audits.
Norbert Dentressangle has just reported consolidated revenue is up 26% to €3,576m and what it describes as “good organic growth in its Transport and Logistics offering.
