Pictured: Warwick Lahmert (NZ), Ignas Darkintis (Latvian), Robert Connolly (Ireland), Ngalu Tau (Tonga) and Jon Ford ( England) and in front Ollie Winters (England) 

Midland's based Oakland International is pleased to have worked with award winning producer Pieminister of Bristol to help ensure English rugby fans were able to support and enjoy the New Zealand rugby experience from the comfort of their own homes.

Oakland helped Pieminister to prepare and pack approximately 100,000 speciality pies over a five-week period for home delivery. Fans entered an online draw to win the pies, which were then dispatched to each of the lucky winners in time for the matches. The pies were placed into bespoke parcels containing two cans of quality beer along with several souvenirs for fans to help commemorate the live matches, such as flags and postcards, and then ice packs to ensure the products arrived in perfect condition.

Philip Popp, Oakland International's Commercial Director said: "For many years we have been supporting and responding to unique requests from our customers to work to short-order lead times, with large volumes of stock and we were happy to be able to partner with Pieminister on such an exciting opportunity. 

"Whether frozen to chilled tempering, applying promotional labelling or date-coding stock, we have proved we are able to tailor-make solutions that fit all customers, and are thrilled at the opportunity to have participated in such a new endeavour, providing parcels for home delivery across the whole of the country."

Pieminister produced two exciting limited edition pies for the promotion:  the Full English Breakfast Pie, which was made with baked beans, sausage, smoked cheddar cheese and smoked bacon, and the Morning Glory breakfast pie, made with baked beans, button mushrooms and smoked cheddar cheese, both enjoying a rich dark sauce. They chose Oakland due to their extensive experience in preparing bespoke contract-packing work and their ability to react to increased volumes and to changes to the pack contents. 

Dean Attwell, Oakland's MD, a long-time supporter of rugby at the local as well as at the national level, explained Oakland's strong ties to the local community:  "In addition to sponsoring some of the local clubs, we're happy to employ staff on a part-time basis to work around their commitments to their clubs. To help us on this project we drafted in players from the local Birmingham and Solihull Bee's rugby club, to help us pack the parcels. We had lads on site representing most of the nations involved in this year's Rugby World Cup, and so were happy to have them help us on this job, and they enjoyed it too!"

Each Pieminister pack was prepared with less than 12-hours lead-time and involved "tempering" frozen products to chilled in a controlled environment, before dispatching via third-party couriers. Oakland is a preferred supply chain partner for numerous UK and Irish retailers, across chilled, frozen, and ambient temperature regimes. Based out of Redditch, West Midlands, Oakland is able to offer a complete supply chain solution to producers of all sizes including specialised suppliers of niche and speciality products.

For more information about Oakland International, please visit their website here: www.oakland-international.com