The Brüning Group is raising the benchmark in terms of service, logistics and quality. Since February, we supply the British market with high-quality, hand-sorted pine bark from Portugal, which previously established itself primarily in Germany, Denmark and other Scandinavian countries. This expansion is the result of intensive cooperation during which we have proven ourselves to be flexible problem solvers.
We source our pine bark in a long-term partnership from a supplier in Portugal – a perfect match for the UK. Due to the beetlefree policy there to prevent the bark beetle, bark products must be heated or fumigated before import to make sure they enter the country pest-free. Due to EU regulations, Portuguese pine must be phytosanitised and thus made pest-free before export anyway. This is why every cubic metre of bark is steamed by our Portuguese supplier for 30 minutes at over 65 degrees Celsius and hygienised in this way. This enables us to offer our customers in the UK a product of consistently high quality.
The central element of our delivery to the UK is efficient logistics: we trade pine bark as loose material in sea containers – a procedure that requires the use of bulkheads at our customer’s premises to keep the unloading and inspection of the material safe for everyone involved. Thanks to our trusted global network, we were in a position to respond quickly to this requirement, install bulkheads within a brief period of time and incorporate them into the transport process. This rapid rescheduling enabled us to guarantee smooth delivery at no additional cost to our customer. We have since optimised operations to the point where we are shipping at least 10 containers per week from Portugal to the UK.
At this point, the Brüning Group has successfully shipped several thousand cubic metres of pine bark to the UK already. Thus, we established ourselves as a reliable partner for the entire transport chain, quickly providing an efficient solution even under challenging circumstances and always taking our customers’ individual requirements into account. We take pride in not only assisting our customers with logistical challenges, but also in growing alongside them and always meeting all legal obligations. Therefore, we recognise great potential for the coming year to further deepen the collaboration with our partners in Portugal and the UK and are already looking forward to continuing our joint success story.