"Common sense can take you far!"

The smell of fresh bread and pastries doesn't just waft by on its own. A team of 100 employees work every day, and especially during the night, to bake thousands of loaves of bread at Bakkerij Paulissen. When ready, they are distributed throughout Limburg and beyond. Through insight into the delivery routes and stops and a good deal of common sense, they were able to intelligently bundle their logistics after merging with Boulangerie Van Weert. And that's not all. Paulissen is joining Maastricht Bereikbaar as a partner in logistics.

Setting off early

Paulissen receives a stream of orders every day until 5:00 PM. At night, the loaves of bread, the vlaaien (local speciality sweet tarts), and rolls are baked. Every Saturday, up to 2,500 loaves of bread and 60,000 rolls are delivered to Paulissen’s own shops as well as a number of supermarkets, cafés, and restaurants. The first drivers are ready to set off at 2:30 AM. They are assigned an optimized route, based on the basic schedule and finalized during the night . In 2017, brothers Luc and Tom took on a bigger role in the company that was founded by their parents Fred and Marleen.

Baking all over Maastricht

Bakery Paulissen bought out another well-known bakery. Van Weert owned its own production location, vans, and routes. Maastricht Bereikbaar provided ideasto help the bakery to streamline its processes. ‘We equipped all our vans with Track and Trace. This gave us insight into our routes and our 60 daily stops. Planning software did not offer enough added value at present because of the routes which are often fixed. Common sense was also enough to obtain results. We could reduce the number of journeys needed by switching from having three vans drive twice to having five vans drive once. That's the kind of adjustment that brings direct benefits for the company, but also for the environment.

One modern bakery

Thanks to a modern extension, Paulissen started baking its bread and pastries at the same location in April 2019. ‘Before that, drivers would have to take their shipment of fresh bread to the patisserie to pick up the rest of their load. After all, when we say freshly baked, we mean freshly baked. Sometimes, the pastries would not be quite ready then the drivers arrived. Naturally, that didn't please those drivers at that early hour of the morning. The current setup works much better.’ Paulissen has therefore developed an appetite for smart logistics. In the future, the bakery wants to switch to more energy-efficient transport. Maastricht Bereikbaar can also help in this regard. Within the partnership, companies are joining forces with Maastricht Bereikbaarto achieve company goals that also have a positive effect on the accessibility and quality of life in South Limburg.