Tesco ships its goods over water

Tesco transports goods over water. Yesterday the retailer started this new cargo service, shipping containers of wine from Australia, California, Chile and Argentina from Liverpool via the Manchester Ship Canal to a bottling site less than half a mile away where they are packed for Tesco supermarkets across the country. Tesco says it plans to use similar waterborne freight routes across Britain.

The new cargo service involves three journeys a week, delivering an estimated 600,000 litres of wine on each journey along the 40 mile stretch of the canal. According to the retailer, this will result in thousands of lorries being taken off Britain’s congested roads, cutting carbon emissions compared with the existing method by 80 per cent.

“We are continually reviewing alternative green methods of transporting cargo and this is our first waterborne project within the UK. We are already looking at other areas where we can move freight on waterways”, says Tesco Distribution Director Laurie McIlwee in a company statement. “Reducing carbon emissions and looking at how we can make the business more environmentally-friendly is a priority and by 2012 we aim to halve the amount of carbon emitted per case of goods delivered.”