Tesco takes to the canal

Tesco will today take a leaf out of the book of Victorian supply chain managers and begin delivering products to its stores via canal.

The new initiative will see the supermarket ferry wine from Liverpool docks to its bottling facility in Manchester along the Manchester Ship Canal in a move that will cut carbon emissions by 80 per cent and see 50 lorries a week taken off the road.

Tesco distribution director Laurie McIlwee said that the scheme would deliver significant environmental improvements compared to the previous supply model, which saw New World wine shipments arrive at various southern ports before being driven to the Manchester bottling depot.

"This move will be like taking a step back to the pre-car days of the late Victorian era - when a lot of cargo was still transported by canal – but is a step forward in helping to address today’s important environmental issues," he said.

The company is also looking at how it can expand the scheme to deliver carry freight along UK waterways. "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," said McIlwee.

The scheme has been endorsed by lobby group Sea and Water, which said that the initiative should help establish the commercial viability of shipping more freight by canal.