Shared Services

In Switzerland two distribution centres, Migros Verteilzentrum Suhr AG and Migros-Verteilbetrieb Neuendorf AG, oversee the storage, picking and transport of the national lines of goods. Suhr is the logistics services centre for the food area; Neuendorf is responsible for non- and near-food, textile and frozen produce. 

 

The focus of the activities at the Logistics & IT Department was on increasing efficiency through cost reduction in particular in the logistics area in the year under review. All goods trading processes, from planning to procurement, production and distribution through to sales, were optimised.

 

At the Migros distribution centres of Suhr and Neuendorf AG, state-of-the-art, fully automatic picking systems were launched in 2011. The investments made in recent years in automation resulted in marked performance increases and cost savings. Capacities were also increased in response to the growing demand for frozen produce. The job cuts associated with the full automation were accompanied by a responsible personnel policy. 

 

Shared Services shifted their focus to the Far East in procurement logistics in 2011. Due to the increasing relocation of China's established industry locations inland (reason: price/infrastructure costs), new transport options and, in particular, overland routes to Europe must be verified. A pilot project is planned in this area for 2012. Migros expects the previous transport by ship to partially shift to rail in the medium term. Overland transport will in particular result in significant time savings. 

 

The IT competence and service was previously spread across various organisational units. In the year under review, it was pooled into the Migros IT Services. Operationally, IT still acts locally, but now has a central management structure. This allows the standardisation of processes and developments as well as the optimisation of quality. Thanks to the centralisation, resources can be used more efficiently and costs reduced.

 

The Logistics & IT Department again cooperated with other business units of Migros to sustainably design its services in 2011. Sustainability aspects were also more strongly included in the individual directorate areas within Shared Services.

 

Air transport was avoided in procurement wherever possible. The procurement chain prefers ship, rail and truck. The distribution centres are continuously improving their branch deliveries. The aim is to distribute the goods even more efficiently while generating less pollution by better utilising and increasing the rail proportion. The software is continuously being improved to achieve the most efficient utilisation.

 

As in the previous year, Migros predominantly transported its freight by rail in 2011, meaning that it continues to be the biggest customer of SBB Cargo in national freight transport. The company is committed to the principle of using rail for long distances and processing local distribution by road haulage whenever possible. The share of rail transport compared to road haulage stands at 75%. Supplying shops is not considered here, as this only possible by truck only for infrastructure reasons.

 

Thanks to its long-standing efforts in the energy and environment areas, Migros won numerous awards in 2011, such as the renowned Energy Globe Award for Switzerland and the Swiss Ethics Award. The National Energy Globe Award for Switzerland and the Energy Globe Award in the Air category are regarded as the Oscars of sustainability.

 

Limmatdruck AG/Zeiler AG was sold to Germany's RLC Packaging Group in the year under review. The company specialising in high-quality, individual packaging solutions was no longer part of Migros' core business with its orientation. Limmatdruck can apply its excellent know-how and innovation perfectly in the new environment.

 

Shared Services plan to achieve a further efficiency increase this year. The aim is to transport equal or slightly higher goods volumes at lower costs, optimise supply chain processes in the area of intermediary trade, and increase energy efficiency further.