News

Tesco has become the first major UK retailer to transport freight by canal. The supermarket has begun three barge journeys a week to move crates of Australian, Californian, Chilean and Argentinian wine from the Port of Liverpool and a container terminal at Irlam, along the Manchester Ship Canal to Manchester. The containers are then transported to a bottling depot less than half a mile away and packed for Tesco's stores.

Until now, the wine shipments have arrived in the UK at various southern  ports by ship before being driven to the Manchester bottling site. The move is a collaboration between Tesco, Peel Holdings - which runs the canal and the Port of Liverpool - and importer Kingsland Wines. Laurie McIlwee, Tesco distribution director, says: "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.

"Reducing carbon emissions and looking at how we can make the business more environmentally friendly is a priority. By 2012 we aim to halve the amount of carbon emitted per case of goods delivered." The supermarket says its decision will cut carbon emissions on this route by 80% and take 50 trucks off the road every week. It also states the move will result in an estimated saving of 1.1 million km of HGV journeys on UK roads. A spokesman for rival supermarket Asda says: "We have no plans at the moment to transport  any of our goods by canal."