Month: December 2019

TPN – The Pallet Network has finished a strong year of recruitment by signing two more first-class Member companies which will officially join the network in early 2020 and the company says it will have more member additions to announce in 2020. Coventry-based Hambridge Transport is a leading logistics firm, specialising in distribution and global logistics. It has an established event logistics business and 120,000 sq ft of warehousing space. It boasts a substantial portfolio of manufacturing, retail, distribution and import clients.

“We were attracted to TPN’s ethos of excellent service,” says financial director Alan Mohomed. “We have extensive experience in palletised freight distribution and felt we could offer value to our existing customers by joining the leading network.”

The second company who will usher in the New Year with TPN is Stevenage-based Big G Logistics, a relatively new logistics player which has nonetheless won some impressive contracts.
“We started in 2016 and now have two depots in Stevenage and Hoddesdon,” says MD George Denman. “We are really pleased to be joining TPN. We have some prior experience helping one of their member depots, and I absolutely love TPN. The systems are brilliant, the people are great. TPN makes it very easy for you to be very good at what you do,” says Denman. “I think I’ll be TPN for life.”

Big G recently won a major XPO contract, becoming an authorised XPO depot. “Although we will do general haulage for customers upon request, palletised freight distribution is the bulk of our business,” says Denman. “That’s why joining TPN will be such a positive move for us and our customers.”

TPN MD Mark Duggan says: “TPN has had a very strong year in 2019, operationally and in terms of Member recruitment. We are very pleased to be starting 2020 with such great companies to the network and are expecting to announce further exciting additions in the near future.” In 2019, TPN, which ships well in excess of four million pallets a year with exceptional service levels, won the coveted FTA/Multimodal Pallet Network of the Year award, voted for by freight customers and industry members.

From a starting point just over six years ago Workstories, a manufacturer and supplier of design-led office seating, workstations, soft seating and associated furniture accessories, is on target to achieve turnover of £20 million in the current financial year. This growth has meant change within the business and in July it relocated its warehousing and distribution operation to a brand-new facility in Kempston, Bedfordshire. This 32,000 sq ft building was a blank canvas and it called upon the expertise of System Store Solutions to install the necessary storage capacity, along with an additional 6500 sq ft mezzanine floor.

Workstories works closely with its customers to specify and supply products from its catalogue of brands to furnish projects of all sizes and for many companies across the UK and mainland Europe. This requires efficient storage solutions for products held in stock as well as having defined useable space in which to pick, collate and assemble a large number of furniture orders dispatched on a daily basis. The move to Kempston provided Workstories a perfect opportunity to create the optimum storage and working environment and chose Ashford, Kent-based System Store Solutions as its partner for the project. “Systems Store Solutions were recommended to us by materials handling specialist UniCarriers and from the first meeting with Karim Loukil from System Store Solutions I was impressed by his approach, knowledge and advice… that combination meant that we never considered going anywhere else for the warehouse and mezzanine installation,” says Brian Quin, Workstories Operations Director.

System Store Solutions prides itself on its ability to deliver to the customer brief and Workstories was no exception as they took the initial ideas and came back with a refined proposal that contained a mix of good ideas and sound technical advice that Brian Quin and his team could take on-board. “It was reassuring that from the project going live we had Mark Price from System Store Solutions as our Contracts Manager and he was on-the-ball from day one keeping me fully informed and updated along the journey,” says Brian Quin. “The result was that we encountered no major obstacles and if any minor issues arose, Mark communicated clearly and dealt with them professionally to keep the project on track. Thanks to this high level of communication and detailed planning the project was completed from beginning to sign-off in 11 weeks.”

The warehouse installation consisted of five rows of ‘double deep’ pallet racking with four space Pallet locations (three beam levels), this maximised the available space for Workstories giving a total of 1426 available pallet locations, with just four gangways for forklift access. The installation also included rack protection barriers and anti-collapse mesh to prevent any possibility of pallets and contents falling on to the mezzanine. In order to create additional space for assembly and storage, System Store Solutions also created the 6500 sq ft mezzanine, with every aspect of the build complying with the relevant fire rating and building regulations, including emergency lighting and smoke detection systems. In addition to working areas System Store Solutions also worked with Workstories to develop the office space with glass partitioning and a break room with kitchen facilities. “Given the extent of this project and fit-out, I was extremely impressed and delighted with the final outcome. System Store Solutions and all the contractors did a great job for Workstories and the support and interaction made it stress free for me. In conclusion it has been a complete success from start to finish,” says Brian Quin.

“While this is not the biggest project in terms of size and value that System Store Solutions has undertaken, it was definitely one of the most comprehensive in terms of number of trades that were involved, from electrical, CCTV, communications, including WiFi, flooring, and controlled access to the building,” says Mark Price, System Store Solutions’ Project Manager. “The fact that we delivered the entire project on-time and to budget is testament to the level of detailed planning that we apply to every project of this type.”

From a starting point just over six years ago Workstories, a manufacturer and supplier of design-led office seating, workstations, soft seating and associated furniture accessories, is on target to achieve turnover of £20 million in the current financial year. This growth has meant change within the business and in July it relocated its warehousing and distribution operation to a brand-new facility in Kempston, Bedfordshire. This 32,000 sq ft building was a blank canvas and it called upon the expertise of System Store Solutions to install the necessary storage capacity, along with an additional 6500 sq ft mezzanine floor.

Workstories works closely with its customers to specify and supply products from its catalogue of brands to furnish projects of all sizes and for many companies across the UK and mainland Europe. This requires efficient storage solutions for products held in stock as well as having defined useable space in which to pick, collate and assemble a large number of furniture orders dispatched on a daily basis. The move to Kempston provided Workstories a perfect opportunity to create the optimum storage and working environment and chose Ashford, Kent-based System Store Solutions as its partner for the project. “Systems Store Solutions were recommended to us by materials handling specialist UniCarriers and from the first meeting with Karim Loukil from System Store Solutions I was impressed by his approach, knowledge and advice… that combination meant that we never considered going anywhere else for the warehouse and mezzanine installation,” says Brian Quin, Workstories Operations Director.

System Store Solutions prides itself on its ability to deliver to the customer brief and Workstories was no exception as they took the initial ideas and came back with a refined proposal that contained a mix of good ideas and sound technical advice that Brian Quin and his team could take on-board. “It was reassuring that from the project going live we had Mark Price from System Store Solutions as our Contracts Manager and he was on-the-ball from day one keeping me fully informed and updated along the journey,” says Brian Quin. “The result was that we encountered no major obstacles and if any minor issues arose, Mark communicated clearly and dealt with them professionally to keep the project on track. Thanks to this high level of communication and detailed planning the project was completed from beginning to sign-off in 11 weeks.”

The warehouse installation consisted of five rows of ‘double deep’ pallet racking with four space Pallet locations (three beam levels), this maximised the available space for Workstories giving a total of 1426 available pallet locations, with just four gangways for forklift access. The installation also included rack protection barriers and anti-collapse mesh to prevent any possibility of pallets and contents falling on to the mezzanine. In order to create additional space for assembly and storage, System Store Solutions also created the 6500 sq ft mezzanine, with every aspect of the build complying with the relevant fire rating and building regulations, including emergency lighting and smoke detection systems. In addition to working areas System Store Solutions also worked with Workstories to develop the office space with glass partitioning and a break room with kitchen facilities. “Given the extent of this project and fit-out, I was extremely impressed and delighted with the final outcome. System Store Solutions and all the contractors did a great job for Workstories and the support and interaction made it stress free for me. In conclusion it has been a complete success from start to finish,” says Brian Quin.

“While this is not the biggest project in terms of size and value that System Store Solutions has undertaken, it was definitely one of the most comprehensive in terms of number of trades that were involved, from electrical, CCTV, communications, including WiFi, flooring, and controlled access to the building,” says Mark Price, System Store Solutions’ Project Manager. “The fact that we delivered the entire project on-time and to budget is testament to the level of detailed planning that we apply to every project of this type.”

Trailer supplier Kögel has expanded its sales and service network in France.

All customers in France and transit forwarding companies can now benefit from a significantly expanded service network and the associated high-quality provision of spare parts, it says. G-TRUCK/MP TRUCK, the specialist for maintenance and repair of commercial vehicles, and Kögel have agreed on a long-term partnership.

For over 22 years, G-TRUCK and MP TRUCK has not only been the established network of spare parts dealers for trucks and commercial vehicles from Alliance Automotive Group, but also the centre for the maintenance and repair of many well-known commercial vehicle brands. With more than 200 branches distributed throughout France and correspondingly excellent spare parts logistics, fast maintenance and repairs are possible throughout the country.

“With G-TRUCK and MP TRUCK, we are significantly expanding our service and spare parts network in France,” says Massimo Dodoni, Managing Director at Kögel. “Our local customers naturally benefit from this strong and proficient new partner and can look forward to perfect workshop service.”

Pictured from left to right: Jean François Bernard, Head of commercial vehicles at Alliance Automotive Group; Amine Sarhani, Head of purchase commercial vehicles at Alliance Automotive Group; Edgar Rodriguez, Manager After Market Spain, France, Portugal at Kögel and Anton Bigelmaier, Authorised Officer and Head of After Market at Kögel.

DENSO WAVE EUROPE is celebrating 25 years of the barcode.

Says the company: “The “QR” in QR Code stands for “Quick Response” which directly highlights one of the many advantages of the two-dimensional code: It provides information very quickly and easily – and can contain a lot of important data.

“The black and white square has spread rapidly around the globe due to its numerous applications. Today, it is almost impossible to imagine logistics and industry, retail, marketing, and advertising without the QR Code.

“Since DENSO WAVE made the QR Code available free of charge 25 years ago, it quickly became very popular. Today, especially in Asia, billions of transactions are made through a payment system using the QR Code, according to the security software company Sophos.”

The 2D code, which was originally developed for factory production control, can now do much more than simply provide information for mobile data collection. Where there are concerns about its safety, the experts from DENSO WAVE EUROPE can offer a secure version of the popular square.

Kaber Kolioutsis, Marketing Communication Specialist, explains: “As the importance of data security has increased immensely, DENSO has developed the Secure QR Code. It enables the encryption of sensitive data, combining the unique benefits of the QR Code with the important factor of security.”

Visually, the SQRC cannot be distinguished from a simple QR Code. However, it ensures that access to the secured part is only possible with certain DENSO readers with the appropriate encryption key embedded in the unit. In addition, access can be granted to a select group of people with the required unit.

This is a big advantage in healthcare: On the SQRC, the name and number of a patient can be stored in the public area of the QR Code. The sensitive data, such as the patient’s disease progression, however, would be stored in the encrypted area, so that only the attending physician can access the information with the appropriate reader.

Even modern face recognition can be combined with the SQRC.