Dehner Logistik

Circular economy as a business model

As the largest garden centre group in Europe, the family-run company Dehner stands for first-class quality. Based in Rain am Lech, Bavaria, the company employs more than 5,500 people and operates 132 garden centres at locations in Germany and Austria. The product range includes everything a gardener’s heart desires: from plants and bird food to the smallest hose coupling. In addition to the garden paradise ‘Blumenpark’, the group of companies also includes Dehner Agrar GmbH & Co. KG and Dehner Logistik GmbH & Co. KG. We took a closer look at the latter together with Ludwig Schuhmann, Head of Green & Recycling Logistics at Dehner Logistik.

Full-service logistics from goods receipt to delivery
The central storage location for Dehner’s garden centres is also Rain am Lech. Here, in the Swabian district of Donau-Ries, Dehner Logistik GmbH & Co. KG is responsible for the entire logistics for green plants and hardware articles. This also includes the complete delivery of plants. Ludwig Schuhmann and his 130 employees ensure that the right goods arrive at the right garden centre at the right time. ‘At Dehner Logistik, we take care of everything from incoming goods to order picking and delivery,’ says Schuhmann.

Optimising both internal processes and the supply chain through innovation
‘Innovation is very important to us,’ says Schuhmann. ‘Like many other companies, we make sure that we work as efficiently as possible. After all, the customer should always find fresh, blooming produce in our garden centres.’ Close contact with suppliers, including the local garden centre in Rain, is also a key factor in achieving this. Other important topics in terms of innovation within the company are process control and optimising the supply chain. The focus here is not only on speed and costs, but also increasingly on sustainability.

A key aspect of the entire supply chain: sustainability
Sustainability is a key aspect of Dehner’s entire supply chain. ‘We want to produce as little waste as possible. All plastics are recycled and reused,’ explains Ludwig Schuhmann. ‘And the plants that are not sold end up in our composter. The compost produced there is used as potting soil for new plants the following year.’ A true circular economy. Sustainability is also an important issue outside the supply chain. In a process lasting several years, the energy concept was also further developed, improved and partly provided with renewable energy, e.g. through a combined heat and power plant with which Dehner generates its own electricity.

The CC Container as a returnable load carrier for flowers and plants
‘CC Containers are the ideal load carriers for plants,’ says Schuhmann. ‘Not only do you have a good view of the plants, but you can also adjust the height of the individual layers specifically to the plants to be transported. The containers also enable optimum utilisation of the truck loading area. Furthermore, the empty containers are easy to dismantle and can be easily compacted thanks to their stackability. This saves enormous transport costs and pollutant emissions on the return journey. CC’s returnable load carriers are very stable and durable, although the quality of the boards can vary somewhat due to the high level of use. In the event of defective boards, Container Centralen’s repair service comes into play and we receive functional material in immediate replacement.’

Dealing with CC containers in the supply chain
Dehner Logistik pays a rental or pool participation fee for the containers in order to be able to use CC’s reusable load carriers and repair service. ‘By purchasing the units via Container Centralen, you can be sure that you always have functional containers available,’ says Schuhmann. ‘We don’t want containers that don’t have an original lock in our supply chain. These containers may be cheaper to purchase initially, but they contaminate our supply chain. We only want to use high-quality, functional CC material here. Of course, it can also happen that we receive defective CC material from our partners, which is why we continuously separate functional and defective CCs.
In this way, we only supply our markets and growers with functional CC containers.
In this way, we keep our pool clean – both at Dehner itself and with regard to what reaches the gardeners. This saves us immense costs. We pick thousands of CC Containers every day in our logistics areas – so we rely on a smooth process. We simply work faster and more economically this way.’

Cooperation and joint projects
‘We implement many projects with Container Centralen and maintain a very open dialogue, including with regard to critical feedback. For example, we see potential for improvement in the design of the current locks,’ reports Schuhmann. As part of an ongoing project, Dehner Logistik scans the RFID TAG5 locks with RFID scanners to check their authenticity, among other things. Schuhmann: ‘We check whether the lock can be read by our scanners or whether it is possibly a counterfeit lock. We link the results back to Container Centralen. Appropriate checking mechanisms are used there. The process is handled extremely strictly to ensure that no counterfeit locks enter the company and therefore our supply chain. However, the procedure, particularly with regard to scanning RFID locks, has not yet been fully implemented by many growers and companies. More participants have joined in recent months, but we still have a long way to go before penetration is comprehensive. Our common goal: the CC Pool must be kept clean!’