Gillingham, Kent: Cook has responded to surging demand for its frozen ready meals by adding another Mercedes-Benz truck to its logistics fleet.
Cook is also about to open a second kitchen at its Kent base that will increase its capacity to make meals by more than 60%.
Mercedes-Benz dealer Sparshatt Truck & Van supplied Cook with it new 15-tonne Atego 1521 L acquired through Mercedes-Benz Finance contract hire. The truck has a ClassicSpace S-cab and rear air suspension, and is powered by a 5.1-litre four-cylinder 211hp engine.
The insulated body, by Solomon Commercials, has a side door in addition to the two at the rear, plus a moving internal bulkhead. It is refrigerated to minus 20 degrees with Frigoblock’s FK Series fridge . This has an integrated evaporator freeing up space in the cargo area.
Cook was established in 1997 by Dale Penfold and Edward Perry, who set out to create meals “using the same ingredients and techniques you would at home, so everything looks and tastes homemade”. It is now an £80-million turnover business with approximately 100 of its own retail stores, the majority of them in the southeast, and many more concessions in farm shops, garden centres, fuel stations and the like.
The Mercedes-Benz Atego range, from 7.5 to 16 tonnes is designed for light- and medium-duty distribution work.
Cook’s new Atego replaces a rented 16-tonner and was commissioned to service some of the more difficult-to-access outlets, many of them in market towns. It operates alongside eight other Mercedes-Benz trucks, most of them 18-tonners, and nine Sprinter vans.
Cook has a distribution centre and cold store in Gillingham, from which its vehicles supply shops and concessions across southern and central England. One of the trucks, an 18-tonne Antos with sleeper cab, also makes twice-weekly collections from the company’s puddings kitchen in Ilminster, Somerset. Deliveries to stores as far afield as Edinburgh, Glasgow, Harrogate and Leeds are made by a transport partner.
Meanwhile, in response to the increased demand prompted by the pandemic, Cook’s store-based home delivery fleet has shot up from nine small, refrigerated vans a year ago, to 50 today.
Logistics Manager Richard Lee joined Cook a decade ago, after its owners resolved to bring the greater part of the distribution function in-house. He recalled: “We took on some short-term rentals initially. As soon as we were in a position to do the job properly, though, we contract-hired an 18-tonne Axor from Sparshatt. It has supplied all of our trucks ever since.”
“Reliability is the single most important factor we look for in a vehicle. Mercedes-Benz builds a top-tier product, one that combines engineering quality with competitive running costs and market-leading safety features,” Lee said.
“Sparshatt, meanwhile, provides the customer-focused back-up that ensures downtime is kept to an absolute minimum. We know from experience that its workshop team will work with us on the maintenance schedules, inspecting and servicing the vehicles overnight so they’re always available for work when we need them, and ensuring they pass their MoT tests at the first attempt.
“It’s a great relationship – Sparshatt’s Truck Sales Executive Martin Kemsley was very professional in his management of our latest order, while we trust his aftersales colleagues implicitly to ensure that our fleet is fully compliant and operating at peak efficiency.”
Cook’s chief executive, Edward Perry said: “Our existing kitchen facility is at full capacity, so we needed additional space to be able to achieve our plan of doubling our sales in five years.
“The new site gives us total confidence that we will achieve our goal and, at the same time, allows us to continue to improve our manufacturing process and products. We are also recruiting 80 members of staff initially, with a view to growing to a total headcount of 200 new colleagues over the next three to four years.”
