Unlike other retail chains, Carrefour Belgium does not have its own trucks. All deliveries to stores are outsourced to transporters, of which Jost is the most important. This outsourcing strategy is specific to Belgium.
The logistics center of gravity of Carrefour Belgium is somewhere around Zaventem. A few years ago it was slightly more south, but the sale of a large number of Walloon Market supermarkets in 2022 changed this somewhat. Anyway, the way in which Carrefour organizes his logistics in Belgium, was admitted to the ‘new normal’.
Outsourced
Carrefour Belgium manages its full logistics and transport structure in collaboration with logistics service providers. “That is a conscious choice of the group in Belgium. In France, Carrefour does about half of the transport itself,” says Tanguy T’Serstevens, director Supply Chain since January 2023. His assignment: optimizing service quality to the stores and improving efficiency through a reorganization of the warehouse network and the transport structure.
Carrefour benefits more than 700 stores in Belgium, including 40 hypermarkets, more than 340 Market supermarkets (43 in-house and more than 300 via franchise partners) and a large number of smaller Carrefour Express stores (80 to 400 m²), both in and outside urban areas.
Every store naturally has its own logistics profile. “Logistics, hypermarkets are the ideal: large volumes, loading quays, night locks and sufficient maneuvering space for trucks. In supermarkets there is almost always a loading quay and sometimes also a night lock. The most difficult are the urban express stores, where the volumes are smaller-as the Express-for bread-for bread-for the sake of bread-for the sake of bread-for the sake of bread-for the sort of bread-for the sort of certain shops-as well-for the sort of bread-for the sort of bread-for the sort of certain. Problems.
All goods are delivered from warehouses that the company runs in collaboration with logistics partners, with Carrefour as the main tenant. Most important partners: Kuehne + Nagel (dry food and fresh products), Distrilog (Non-Food), Greenyard (fresh products) and GXO Logistics (frozen products). Carrefour Belgium wants to start a new site for fresh food soon and has launched an RFQ (Request for Quotation) with potential logistics partners.
Jost, head partner in transport
The transport part of this logistics organization is also completely outsourced. JOST deals with most of the goods flows under a contract that was renewed for six years in December 2024. “It is a historical partnership that goes back to 2008, when Carrefour Solderport sold to the Weerts group, which handed this activity to Jost four years later,” said Tanguy T’Serstevens.
“Jost is not limited to carrying out transport assignments. They also take care of the dispatching and manage the terminal tractors on our logistics sites. And we continue to work with them because their service is good. They behave like a real partner: solution -oriented and flexible, always willing to think along and quickly switched to us, they have been supported by the depot in other logistics Sites.”
According to Tanguy T’Serstevens, the biggest advantage of collaboration with a large transporter, such as Jost, is flexibility. The basic activities require 122 drivers every day, but at peak times Jost can easily bet more. In addition, Carrefour also uses 25 Vehicles from Distrilog and the frozen products are supplied by GXO. With regard to deliveries to the Carrefour Express, Jost often appeals to subcontractors with trucks. “That is a domain where the rules are getting stricter,” says T. T’Serstevens. “We are increasingly to use smaller vehicles, within limited time windows, which leads to more journeys and kilometers. So a dialogue must be triggered between the parties involved, so that the federal, regional and municipal regulations are coordinated and remained realistic for the transporturs.”
Increasingly greener
The selection criteria for transporters are classic: compliance with food safety rules, road safety, flexibility and consistency in services, but also sustainability. “That is an absolute requirement today,” explains Tanguy T’Serstevens. “In the context of our Act for Food strategy, we want to reduce our emissions by 2030 by 2030 and be climate neutral by 2050. Our warehouses are furnished as sustainably as possible and we impose CO2 reduction objectives on our transporters. From our side we take the responsibility to provide stable palettes in such a way that we assemble the available space that the Benut is put together to compile that the Benuties are put on the way that the Benut is put together to compile that a height of 1.80 m and a load of 32 pallets. ” This explains, among other things, why the use of double -deck trailers is more difficult to consider: it would break into ingrained habits and is also only interesting with longer distances. The same applies to ecocombi’s.
With regard to alternative drives, Belgium is strongly inspired by what is happening in France, where Carrefour uses a fleet of electric and biogas trucks. The company naturally follows electric trucks closely, but still considers the action radius of the tractors to be too limited for the time being.
Logistics organization of Carrefour
• About 80 employees are responsible for supplying the warehouses and stores, coordination with the various logistics service providers, solving ad-hoc problems in stores, analyzing processes and leading projects such as the start-up of a new distribution center for fresh products
• More than 700 stores to deliver
• Logistics Hubs managed by Kuehne + Nagel, Distrilog, GXO and Greenyard
• Transported transport to Jost, Distrilog, GXO and some smaller players
