Delivering Freshness and Flexibility: How Lineage and the UK’s Leading Food Wholesaler Have Fueled Food Supply for 25 Years
February 26, 2026
Case Study Snapshot
Challenges Addressed
- Distributing millions of products daily to over 50,000 institutions
- Managing up to 20% demand spikes beyond forecasts during seasonal peaks (Mother's Day, Easter) and weather changes
- Balancing rapid order fulfilment with product range diversity
- Managing ambient, chilled, and frozen products across a unified network
- Adapting to changing UK food trends around convenience, health, and sustainability
Overview
A 25-year strategic partnership between Lineage and the UK's leading food wholesaler, demonstrating how collaboration and innovation can transform food supply chain logistics to meet evolving market demands.
At Lineage, we’re proud to play a key role in feeding the nation – supporting hundreds of thousands of establishments across the UK with trusted, temperature-controlled logistics solutions. Our 25-year partnership with the UK’s leading food wholesaler stands as a testament to what’s possible when collaboration meets innovation.
The challenge: Feeding over 50,000 pubs, hotels, restaurants, schools & hospitals
Our customer serves a vital role in the UK’s food supply chain, distributing millions of products daily to over 50,000 key service institutions. Balancing speed, product range, and order flexibility in a highly dynamic market requires tailored solutions, operational excellence, and unwavering reliability.
The solution: A fully integrated, temperature-controlled network
In 2016, we delivered a purpose-built 27,000-pallet ambient facility in the UK, complementing our existing chilled and frozen capabilities. This expansion enables us to manage all temperature regimes – ambient, chilled, and frozen – in a single location.
- 10,000+ unique products handled
- 500,000+ pallets received annually
- Seamless integration supporting rapid order fulfilment
Agility meets precision: Handling market spikes and daily demands
Whether it’s seasonal surges on Mother’s Day or Easter, unexpected weather changes, or evolving consumer preferences, volume fluctuations of up to 20% beyond forecasts are common. Lineage’s agile logistics services flex to meet this challenge – onboarding new suppliers in as little as 7 days and enabling next-day deliveries of any order size.
Our dedicated case picking team processes over 31 million cases annually, ensuring orders are placed on time to be loaded and dispatched in under an hour, keeping supply chains moving efficiently.
The result: Sustained growth & market leadership
Through close collaboration, Lineage has supported our customer’s transformation to meet changing UK food trends – prioritizing convenience, health, and sustainability. Results over 25 years include:
- 200% increase in product range
- More than a 100% rise in pallet throughput, from 606,000 to over 1.2 million annually
- Robust, flexible supply chain that adapts to evolving market needs
Looking forward: A partnership built to last
We’re honoured to have recently extended our contract with this key partner by 10 years, underpinning a shared commitment to excellence, innovation, and feeding the UK’s diverse food service sector reliably and sustainably.
David Vickers, Lineage’s Regional Vice President, reflects: “Our partnership goes beyond logistics – together, we deliver fresh food and confidence to millions every day. We’re excited to keep evolving and raising the bar as we grow.”
Why Lineage made the difference during seasonal peaks:
- Comprehensive temperature-controlled warehousing solutions
- Rapid, flexible onboarding and scalability
- Unrivalled precision and service excellence
- Proven track record of growing with our customers
