Helsinki / FI. (fg) In order to improve the service level of Fazer Bakery Sweden towards its customers, Finland’s Fazer Group has entered a reseller agreement with the bakery sales company Polfärskt. The agreement will come into effect from the beginning of the summer 2021. As a result, Fazer Bakery’s organisation for field sales and distribution in Sweden will be discontinued.
The reseller agreement only covers sales and distribution to retail. Fazer Bakery Sweden will continue to have its own sales organisation managing central customer relations and campaigns with Swedish retail as well as sales to restaurants, food services, export and products for private label.
The agreement with Polfärskt will improve the service level to customers through an increased presence of Fazer’s products in Swedish retail and more frequent store visits. Co-distribution will also result in lower environmental impact from bread transports due to higher volumes in each delivery and decreased CO-2 equivalents from fewer trucks.
Fazer also plans to close the bakery in Lund during the autumn 2021. The negotiation with the unions is ongoing. The plan is to move the production to Fazer’s bakeries in Umeå, Eskilstuna and Lidköping.
«The now presented change lays the foundation for future growth through an improved service level towards our customers and a more efficient bakery network. This will provide us with better opportunities to offer consumers tasty, innovative and healthy bakery products from beloved brands in Sweden and beyond, says Petri Kujala, MD at Fazer Bakery in Sweden.
Polfärskt will become Fazer Bakery’s reseller in Sweden
The reseller agreement with Polfärskt provides a long-term and sustainable sales model that will improve Fazer’s service level towards customers, stores and consumers. As a sales company, Polfärskt has the capacity to visit stores more frequently and has a broader store network coverage throughout Sweden. More consumers will be able to buy Fazer’s bread and enjoy products and offers, also in smaller towns. Fazer and Polfärskt already have an ongoing co-distribution in northern Sweden.
This new distribution model is also environmentally more sustainable. Co-distribution will result in increased volumes in each shipment resulting in fewer trucks, which leads to less environmental impact from bread deliveries. Fazer Bakery Sweden’s CO-2 equivalents from bread deliveries to stores are estimated to halve when the current fleet of trucks of 290 vehicles is discontinued. Polfärskt has the ambition to only use fossil free fuel and, as the first company within the bakery industry, it is testing a fully electric bread truck. The initiative is supporting one of Fazer’s four core sustainability goals, 50 percent less emissions by 2030.
Fazer plans to close its bakery in Lund
Fazer plans to close its bakery in Lund in the autumn of 2021. A more concentrated bakery network suits Fazer’s product range better and creates better conditions for baking more efficiently and sustainably, for example, by decreasing the amount of production waste and reducing energy consumption. The plan is to move production to Fazer’s bakeries in Umeå, Eskilstuna and Lidköping.
Gateau’s bakery, located in the same premises, is not directly affected by the termination but it will need to move to new premises in the future.
Fazer supports employees in change
As a result of the planned changes, the Fazer Bakery field sales and distribution organisation in Sweden will be discontinued. Negotiations with the unions are ongoing. The changes affect all 495 employees as well as sales extras within field sales and distribution and all 69 employees in the Lund bakery.
Fazer supports all employees affected by the change through collaborations with occupational health care, employment administration and support functions.
The bakery business continues to be a strategic focus
Fazer is The Food Experience Company with focus on value creation and we are developing leading positions in the Northern Europe. The operating environment for FMCG companies is changing rapidly, setting demands to respond to new needs. Fazer has an ambitious growth plan in Sweden with a focus on innovative and sustainable solutions. The grain and bakery businesses are both important elements of Fazer’s growth plans.
