November 2021

Past the parcel – Amazon vs. Independent BPO

Posted on 24 November, 2021 by Keith McKinley

The fulfilment process encompasses much more than simply shipping orders to customers, writes Kamran Iqbal, Commerce Strategist at PFS. Warehouse management, overseeing inventory capabilities, building positive relationships with reliable carriers, customer service teams, personalisation services, real-time data tracking and understanding compliance updates – these are just some of the ingredients needed to ensure a seamless fulfilment operation that prioritises customer experience. Scalability is a key consideration for retailers.

As such, choosing the right business process outsourcing (BPO) is essential for any e-commerce business. As you might expect, globally recognised Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), is one of the most popular options out there. With an active Amazon seller account, you can add FBA to get your fulfilment services up and running. Selecting products using Amazon’s built-in catalogue, you can use their inventory management tool to market accordingly, then get packing your items safely before appointing one of Amazon’s carriers to ship items to their intended destinations. Customer service agents are also on-hand 24/7.

But are you really getting value for money when you partner with Amazon FBA? Does well-known necessarily mean money well-spent? Brands who care about customer loyalty and upholding their brand values and vision need to dig a little deeper before committing.

Measure for measure

Amazon’s busy supply chains can sometimes be the victim of inventory mismanagement or mishandling as a result. FBA system lags have resulted in negative feedback from sellers directly as delays have seen a drop in their ratings and even worse, cancelled orders. During the early days of the pandemic, Amazon introduced a policy where only inventory that had been classified as “necessities” would be shipped, causing frustration amongst many long-term sellers and putting off potential new partners. Likewise, issues during peak seasons such as last-minute changes to inventory policies, despite having an established API system in place, have made many question the value of Amazon FBA.yh

Products getting lost, or extra inventory showing up after shipments are completed, doesn’t restore seller confidence in the apparent transparency and reliability on stock that Amazon claims to have. Even more upsetting, if items are lost in the Amazon supply chain, a claim must be filed with Amazon for reimbursement. However, Amazon makes a valuation of the lost merchandise as opposed to paying the exact amount originally paid for it – not an ideal setup for retailers.

Advocating the great strength of omnichannel retail and optimising inventory management is key for any appointed BPO. By diversifying fulfilment points, comparing shopping selections, and ensuring stable Distributed Order Management (DOM) technology can route orders to alternative fulfilment facilities, retailers can keep orders moving and maintain customer loyalty.

Being preventative and reactive is the winning combination and will set you up for success. By implementing a full-featured order management system (OMS), customer delivery preferences, shipping time and costs, as well as sustainability initiatives, can be brought to fruition as part of a wider system of inventory management – something which can really be explored by BPOs, other than Amazon.

Battle of the brands

Partnering with Amazon can show that you have the demand and capital to be a key player in e-commerce. Like so many brands, however, your identity can quickly be swallowed up and, to all intents and purposes, eradicated, as shipments are sent impersonally, with the contents inside being wrapped with Amazon logos and no branding or personal touches that set the e-commerce order apart. Scalability is a key consideration for retailers and brands and with customers continuing to revel in a “gifted” experience, that ability to offer the personal touch can make all the difference.

With personalisation services on hand as part of the BPO experience, providers fully deliver on brand ethos and tie the customer to that purchasing journey. Value-added services (VAS) put the brand first, not the BPO; clearly identifying the brand being purchased from directly and eliminating any confusion around the purchase. Working with branded packaging eliminates any vanity – and ensures there are no questions lost in translation further down the line.

Making a success of your fulfilment operation doesn’t end when the package reaches its destination. Being on-hand to answer questions before, during and after items have made it to the customer is essential, especially when things go wrong, or a customer is less than happy with their experience.

Less time spent holding on the phone and instead engaging with social media forums or chat windows is evidently preferable for customers. Amazon FBA has fallen down time and time again here as customers report slow response times and lack of personalised or tailored customer service responses.

The BPO difference

Setting your brand apart, by ensuring multilingual agents are on hand, can make the difference between an abandoned cart and a lifelong customer. A qualified BPO can offer a variety of channels (live chat, email, phone, video, chatbots, social listening and social media monitoring, etc.) to meet customers where they are at any stage of the transaction. Agents can respond to customer service issues quickly and satisfactorily, stopping issues escalating before customers take to forums and other mediums.

Ultimately, it comes down to brand identity. If aligning yourself with a recognised global network is the key determining factor, then Amazon may still come out on top. Companies may believe that partnering with a provider with Amazon’s scale may create legitimacy within their own brand.

But should it be down to the fulfilment provider to establish this legitimacy in the first place?

Scalability is a key consideration for retailers and brands moving from the likes of Amazon to an independent BPO – supporting operations year-round, not just at times of fluctuating demand, such as peak, is essential. Dealing with unexpected surges is crucial – you don’t want your BPO to be surprised. If they are, they cannot call themselves scalable. If recognition is vital to deliver the overall brand ethos, then employing the services of a BPO who has the infrastructure in place to meet these expectations may just push them to the top.

GEODIS expands e-commerce activities in Belgium

Posted on 24 November, 2021 by Keith McKinley

Leading global transport and logistics services provider GEODIS has established a new sorting centre in Schoten, near Antwerp, as well as a new office located within the airport of Liege. The first will facilitate the expansion of one of its largest international e-Commerce customers into the Belgian market. The second is intended to reinforce GEODIS’ e-Commerce footprint in Europe.

In Schoten, the new 6,300 sq m sorting centre will host between 100 to 150 express trucks per day. In order to process up to 20,000 parcels daily (140,000 per week) and ensure the fastest-possible delivery times, the facility will operate 24/7.

At Grâce-Hollogne, near Liege, the new GEODIS office is in the heart of the airport; the seventh-largest for air freight in Europe, renowned for its expertise in e-commerce. The strategic location of the new office, within the Amsterdam-Paris-Frankfurt golden triangle, will provide a connection between the Asian and North American continents and GEODIS’ European multimodal distribution network.

“For our customers, this means access to more than 250 million consumers in less than a day by road, also via barge connections from Liege to Antwerp, Rotterdam and on to the Rhine; as well as through air and rail connectivity with China from Zhengzhou, Yiwu and Chengdu,” said Mark van den Assem, Managing Director of GEODIS for Benelux.

“Investing in the expansion of our e-commerce logistics activities is an essential part of our growth strategy,” confirmed Thomas Kraus, GEODIS President & CEO North, East and Central Europe. “The world is seeing an unprecedented growth of e-commerce volumes, at a time of capacity constraints in the global transport market. GEODIS is underlining its ability to provide both, capacity through its own controlled network and logistics competence on the ground; this significantly strengthens our position in Belgium.”

UK government changes red diesel consent

Posted on 24 November, 202125 July, 2025 by David Priestman

The UK Material Handling Association (UKMHA), the trade body representing all aspects of the UK’s material handling industry, has alerted lift truck operators to important changes in the permitted use of rebated fuels, such as red diesel.

The association said the government had announced restrictions on the use of red diesel in a move which Westminster claims more fairly reflects the harmful impact of diesel emissions. The changes are intended to incentivise users to improve the energy efficiency of their operations. The government said it also hoped the changes would encourage operators to invest in cleaner alternatives or more fuel-efficient machines.

Under the changes, the permitted uses for rebated fuels, of which red diesel is one, will be significantly reduced from 1 April 2022. It will then be illegal to put rebated fuel into a machine for uses which fall outside the scope of the new rules. Operators using red diesel will need to ensure that red diesel in their current machine – or storage – tanks are used up by the April deadline.

Those no longer permitted to use rebated fuel will need to use fuels (diesels or biofuels) upon which full excise duty is paid, such as white diesel.

David Goss (pictured), Technical Director, UKMHA, said: “These changes will have a major bearing on the use of certain types of trucks and it is important that operators and hire companies are aware of their obligations ahead of the rule change.

“Likewise, Registered Dealers in Controlled Oil (RDCO) will also need to ensure they are aware of who they supply to and that excessive quantities of red diesel are not sold to users not permitted to use them prior to the deadline.

“Anyone needing further clarification can contact the UKMHA for help, while full details of the new requirements can be FOUND HERE on the government’s own website.”

Changes to rebated fuels entitlement from 1 April 2022

The permitted uses for red diesel will be restricted to certain equipment used for:

Accepted purposes in agriculture, horticulture, fish farming and forestry
Rail transport
Fuel used for non-commercial purposes – heating and power generation
Community amateur sports clubs (CASC) and golf courses
Sailing, boating and marine transport (excluding private pleasure craft in Northern Ireland)
Travelling fairs and circuses
Within agriculture, the equipment allowed to use rebated fuels for permissible purposes includes:
Tractors
Non-road mobile machinery (NRMM), for example, unlicenced forklifts
Work trucks, for example, road licensed forklifts

Accepted purposes are specified in Excise Notice 75, clause 9, and include:

Growing and harvesting crops, ornamental plants, timber and others
Rearing of animals for production of food, wool and others

Excluded from permissible uses are:

Construction of structures/buildings for purposes relating to agriculture
Purposes relating to sport or recreation
Transportation of produce, inputs or waste, except in specified circumstances

However, exemptions apply in certain cases. Such as:

Equipment using rebated fuel used for permitted purposes for agriculture, horticulture, fish farming or forestry, can be used for any other purpose on the Private land where it is ordinarily kept, and,
Rebated fuel can be used to travel to and from the place where the vehicle is used, including on the public highway (so long as the vehicle is licensed).

The UKMHA said HMRC had confirmed to it that the use of red diesel would be permitted when a hire truck was moving from Farm A to Farm B via the hire company depot, so long as these journeys do not include any non-qualifying work.

For applications no longer permitted to use rebated fuel, the fuel in a vehicle/machine and in any storage tanks, should be used up before 1 April 2022. However, vehicle/machine fuel tanks do not need to be flushed, except where the equipment is switching between permitted and non-permitted uses.

Storage tanks will only require flushing if they are owned/operated by an RDCO (Registered Dealer in Controlled Oil). However, stocks in storage tanks that cannot be used up prior to 1 April 2022 cannot be used for non-allowed purposes, although they can be sold to an RDCO or disposed of through an approved waste oil company.

Where a vehicle or machine is to be used for both allowed and non-allowed purposes, the requirement is to either:

flush out the tank to remove all traces of rebated fuel when switching uses, or,
use fully duty-paid diesel or biofuels for everything.

Equipment fuelled with red diesel whilst abroad and in a jurisdiction where this is allowed, can use up the remaining fuel in the tank when returned to the UK. It is not necessary to flush the tank so long as documentary evidence can be produced demonstrating that the vehicle has not been refilled unlawfully in the UK.

Further Government advice on this can be FOUND HERE.

For hire equipment, from 1 April 2022, rebated fuel must not be put into a vehicle, machine or appliance for a use that is no longer allowed and any fuel in the equipment should be used up before the deadline. However, it is not required to flush the fuel tank except where the equipment is moving between permitted and non-permitted uses.

The hire company (owner of the vehicle/machine) is responsible for their own equipment, and it is their responsibility to make clear to users of the said equipment, which type of fuel can be used and for what purpose. In this way, the burden of responsibility is on the owner (hire company) to confirm that the tank has been either flushed to remove all traces of rebated fuel when switching uses or, instead, to ensure that only fully duty-paid fuel is used for all purposes.

The owner must ensure the correct fuel is put in the tank prior to hiring out their equipment and they must also take all reasonable steps to ensure the correct fuel is used in the machines when they are hired out, for example, when refuelled by the user. If the owner (hire company) finds red diesel in a tank once a machine has been returned, they will need to flush this out.

Therefore, the UKMHA’s advice to hire companies is to review their contract terms and to consider amending contracts to show that charges could be incurred by the user if they are found to be in breach of requirements.

“However, we have been informed by HMRC that they understand that the owner cannot always control what fuel any given user may put into the tanks and so will consider each case on its own merit,” said Goss. “If traces of red diesel are detected in the tank for a non-permitted use, the hire company will be asked to prove with receipts/invoices that they had put the correct fuel in the tank, as will the fuel user, in order to determine who was in the wrong.”

In the case of Registered Dealers in Controlled Oil (RDCO), ahead of the April 2022 deadline, RDCOs have a responsibility not to supply customers affected by the changes with more rebated fuel than they can realistically use before the rule change. An RDCO that repurposes a storage tank from red to white diesel is required to drain and flush the storage tank. Anyone wishing to stop being an RDCO needs to de-register and keep records to show how stocks of rebated fuel were disposed of.

There is further Government advice for RDCOs here.

Linde launches safety app for ATEX vehicles

Posted on 23 November, 202129 July, 2025 by David Priestman

The EX Monitoring App from Linde Material Handling notifies drivers of explosion-protected industrial trucks about the status of safety-relevant parameters and supports service technicians in diagnostics and repairs. The advantages for operators include a higher level of comfort, increased transparency, time savings and even better availability of vehicles during operations.

In order to avoid ignition sources that could lead to explosions in a potentially explosive atmosphere, the ATEX directive requires the consistent monitoring of defined, safety-relevant parameters when operating industrial trucks. Linde MH has developed its EX Monitoring App to enable the continuous monitoring of such values: It ensures maximum vehicle availability by displaying safety-relevant values and errors and providing concrete recommendations for action.

The app supports forklift drivers and fleet managers in operating the vehicle as safe and failure-free as possible. At the same time, it simplifies maintenance, diagnosis and repair.

“This makes the operation of explosion-protected vehicles in sensitive areas even more productive,” summarizes Elke Karnarski, the product manager responsible for explosion-protected Linde industrial trucks and solutions.

Many areas of the chemical, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, food and beverage industries, as well as logistics, are vulnerable to explosions because hazardous materials are manufactured, processed, transported and stored in such areas. Here, it is essential to eliminate any ignition sources that could cause an explosion with devastating consequences.

Industrial trucks are found in ATEX zones 1/21 and 2/22 – these include, for example, areas of production where hazardous materials are openly mixed or transferred into other containers, as well as areas where hazardous materials are stored and transported in closed containers and can be released in the event of an accident or collision. When gases or dusts combine with oxygen in ambient air, this can create an explosive atmosphere. Ignition sources on vehicles can be avoided by means of appropriate explosion-proof equipment as well as the consistent monitoring of safety-relevant parameters – which encompass up to 50 values in an explosion-protected vehicle, primarily temperature-relevant parameters, resistance values, voltages and wear.

These include the temperature of the housings of electronic control units and power modules, brake shoes, magnetic brakes and the traction motor. Up to now, it has been common practice to inform the driver of safety-critical faults by means of a flash code on the vehicle display. In everyday operation, however, the identification and handling of faults is not always carried out as it should be. With varying consequences – sometimes the vehicle remains out of service longer than necessary. Often the fault is not checked thoroughly enough. And sometimes even a visit by a service technician is inefficient because it could not be adequately prepared.

Linde’s EX Monitoring App offers a solution. It provides drivers and fleet managers in ATEX zones 1/21 or 2/22 with comprehensive condition monitoring information. The app checks the explosion-protected vehicle on the spot and shows what needs to be done in each specific case. It explains the meaning of the flash code and identifies the specific error.

The integrated two-stage traffic light system lays out the next steps simply and unambiguously: A yellow indicator signifies that the vehicle should be cooled down and a maintenance appointment made. If the light is red, it’s time to stop immediately and call a service technician! Additional assistance is provided by means of the detailed diagnostic function which indicates all values of the monitored components and parameters.

The app also displays the error history and provides specific recommendations for action. Thus, all details regarding the wear of safety-critical components and the remaining operating hours are recorded.

The EX Monitoring App from Linde MH is a USP. Already available for five series, it will be part of all future explosion-protected Linde industrial truck models.

Transporeon aims for carbon neutrality

Posted on 23 November, 2021 by Keith McKinley

On 23rd November 2021, Transporeon announced that it will become carbon neutral within three months. The company offers technology with a purpose that enables its customers to operate more sustainably. For example, Transporeon can help them make their CO2 consumption more visible with the new ‘Transporeon Carbon Visibility’ dashboard. In this context, the European Union’s ‘Fit for 55’ climate policy will apply carbon certificate trading to the transport sector from 2026 and require companies to set up an objective and efficient reporting system.

“It is only logical that we do our utmost to operate sustainably ourselves as the leading digital freight platform in Europe, where our customers together manage more than 100,000 transports per day and tender about 20bn freight volume per year,” said Transporeon CEO Stephan Sieber. “Becoming carbon neutral is the first step, but the journey has only just begun.”

Already beginning of this year, Transporeon launched the internal technology incubator ‘Transporeon4Future’ with the goal to innovate for decarbonisation and sustainable logistics. From this initiative Transporeon is launching in early 2022 the new Carbon Visibility dashboard that will enable shippers, carriers, and freight forwarders to precisely measure and report on their logistics emissions across the entire supply chain and all transport modalities and to provide tools to steer and reduce their future emissions.

More solutions will follow. For example, Transporeon is working on green tendering and assignment solutions, which will go live in 2022.

Transporeon´s own carbon footprint in 2020 falls more than 40% short compared to 2019, which was both impacted by the pandemic and own efforts which leave room for further science-based decarbonisation targets. Transporeon has therefore partnered with South Pole to undertake its decarbonisation strategy, the setting of future targets and also the selection of emission reduction projects to offset its remaining carbon emissions.

South Pole is a leading climate solutions provider and developer of emission reduction projects. Transporeon will be awarded the “Carbon Neutral Company” label by South Pole for its efforts in the first quarter of 2022.

“We applaud Transporeon for taking important steps on their climate journey, first by assessing their carbon footprint and then by taking meaningful action towards reducing their emissions,” said Renat Heuberger, CEO South Pole. “We are proud to help them on this journey and eager to see how their actions encourage other companies to take similar actions.”

“We are committed to bring transportation in sync with the world – with a sustainable world,” added Sieber. “Collaboration is the most promising way to achieve decarbonisation. That is why not only Transporeon as a company will become carbon neutral, but we also guide our network to lower their emissions in transportation. Together, we can make a difference.”

Pets at Home outsources automation maintenance

Posted on 23 November, 202125 July, 2025 by David Priestman

When lockdown triggered a huge surge in ecommerce orders, Pets at Home recognised the importance of upgrading the maintenance and support of its automated warehouse systems by outsourcing to Invar Integration. Maintaining uptime was critical to ensuring customers received their orders on time.

Pets at Home is the UK’s leading pet care business with over 450 stores and a growing ecommerce channel.

To keep pace with the increase of online sales, in 2019 the business took the decision to introduce an automated zone-picking operation at its Northampton DC, where miles of powered conveyor and a series of carton elevators smoothly transfer order-cartons over three floors of a mezzanine system.

Auto-carton erection and sealing machines work in unison with pickers in a 24/7 operation to complete some 15,000 parcels a day, comprising orders across a diverse 10,000-SKU product range, from 25kg bags of pet food to a plethora of accessories, right down to a collar for a kitten. In addition, a further 8-9,000 daily orders for prescription medications are processed within a dedicated order assembly area.

Keeping such a highly mechanised fulfilment process running smoothly, with minimal failures or glitches, is absolutely critical to maintaining optimal performance and ultimately, ensuring customer satisfaction. Reliable on-site engineering support is, of course, essential.

When the pandemic hit, online demand surged due to lockdowns and travel restrictions, meaning there was a greater emphasis than ever to maintain performance.

Simon Phillips, General Manager at Pets at Home, explains: “Towards the end of 2019 we implemented our automated solution for ecommerce orders and then in early 2020 the pandemic suddenly struck, resulting in a huge shift to online sales.

“It was really fortuitous that we had made the decision to invest in automation when we did,” he says. “That decision wasn’t driven by capacity issues at the time, but subsequently it has allowed us to meet the phenomenal surge in demand resulting from lockdown.”

He adds: “We have seen volumes through our online channel more than double over the last year, whilst at the same time the business is going through significant double-digit growth.

As a consequence, we soon realised that we needed to increase our engineering support rapidly to maintain performance.”

To address these challenges, Pets at Home turned to warehouse automation specialists, Invar Integration, for an outsourced maintenance solution. In the spring of 2020 Invar was engaged to provide a professional team of four on-site engineers with a remit to manage a 24/7, 364 day a year service, offering a planned preventative maintenance programme, immediate failure resolution, spare parts inventory management and further back-up support – tapping into the full technical capabilities and resources of the Invar Group. As online sales boomed, it wasn’t long before Invar Integration expanded the team to five by bringing on board a full-time onsite manager to co-ordinate resources.

Invar Integration was tasked with ensuring maximum uptime with little room for failure.

A strict set of SLAs was put in place to track performance month by month:

Overall availability of the system has a KPI target of 96%
scanner read rates 98%
recommended spares held vs recorded spares 98%
planned maintenance vs completed maintenance 97%
and engineering shifts completed and fulfilled 99.8%

Alex Moore, Maintenance Contract Manager at Invar Integration, says: “It’s an extremely busy warehouse. We have a full preventative maintenance schedule in place spanning 52 weeks of the year, involving in-depth checks across the system, identifying and replacing components close to failure, such as drive motors, rollers or worn drive bands. And this extends right across the entire system, including the carton erectors and packing machines.

“An important aspect of our work is the provision of spares – we plan what parts to hold in stock and manage the inventory, which is vital for ensuring maximum uptime of the system,” he says.

Invar Integration’s IT systems are used to manage parts holding, directly linking into the planned preventative maintenance schedule.

Phillips explains how this has delivered significant benefits: “Invar has been really great at helping us determine what the planned preventative schedule needs to look like under this increased pressure, what spare parts we need to hold, and when we need to take the equipment down to provide a window of opportunity for planned maintenance – this has probably been the biggest learning curve for us, and has allowed us to significantly increase the reliability of the system.”

Of course, system performance is particularly critical at peak periods. “We have the retail Christmas peak,” he says. “During this period we see a good 30-50% uplift in volume and I’m happy to say that the modelled and planned maintenance and support structure put in place by Invar copes well.”

Phillips points out: “The last 12 months has seen a really big shake-down of what we would describe as a new system, so there have been some challenges to overcome. However, we have been able to utilise Invar’s industry expertise and network to resolve these pretty quickly. For instance, we had a failure on a carousel that lifts cartons up from the ground floor to the mezzanine floors, but Invar had it back up and running within a matter of hours.”

A full understanding of the many varied forms of warehouse automation is essential for any business offering a comprehensive maintenance and support service. Being a well-established systems integrator helps. “Invar has been very supportive in bringing new ideas to the table, says Simon Phillips. “They have been great at listening to us, and in trying to understand our business. We have a fantastic working relationship with them and importantly, they deliver what they said they will deliver – and that has stood them in very good stead.”

UK forklift orders soaring

Posted on 23 November, 202125 July, 2025 by David Priestman

Rising confidence as business looks for a swift recovery from a succession of pandemic-induced lockdowns is generating unprecedented demand for new lift trucks across nearly all sectors of the market. However, as new data from the UK Material Handling Association (UKMHA) shows, manufacturers are struggling to keep pace with demand due to the ongoing shortage of critical components.

Following a 24% decline in bookings during 2020, orders have surged this year, with latest estimates predicting a 38% increase by year-end. Such a figure represents a 5.7% increase on the figures for pre-pandemic 2019 levels.

With industry demand expected to stay strong into next year, experts at Oxford Economics have predicted in their Autumn Economic Forecast, which has been produced for UKMHA constituent, BITA, a further 6.5% growth in bookings for 2022.

However, while deliveries have also recovered – currently hovering around levels seen in 2016, the economists have predicted supply issues could continue to disrupt delivery schedules well into next year before eventually subsiding.

“While shipments have staged a strong recovery, they are lagging well behind the growth in bookings,” states the new report. “This is natural due to lead times between bookings and shipping, but it likely also reflects wider supply chain issues that are affecting industries this year. We expect supply chain issues to persist well into next year, but they will eventually improve, and companies will continue to adapt. Therefore, the backlog will continue to rise into next year.”

The situation is by no means unique to lift trucks; virtually all aspects of the manufacturing industry are currently being disrupted due to the shortage of critical components. The situation is compounded by labour shortages, escalating fuel and energy costs, and raw material costs.

Nevertheless, surging consumer demand continues to drive the market and this is expected to remain the case during 2022, despite inflationary pressures.

One of the primary beneficiaries of the current situation has been the Counterbalance sector, which has witnessed a startling recovery. Prior to the pandemic, counterbalance bookings were in decline, falling more than 5% in 2019, with the weakness most pronounced in Class 4/5. The pandemic exacerbated the trend, with Classes 1 and 4/5 subsiding by 21% and 34% respectively last year, with the decline most prominent in the first half of the year.

Bookings staged a strong recovery throughout 2021 as pandemic restrictions eased. All classes were up well above 100% in the second quarter, while bookings for Class 1 continued to grow in Q3 but pulled back for Class 4/5 from the levels seen in the previous three months.

With industrial production predicted to rise by 5.6% this year, driven by strong consumer demand – a trend anticipated to continue into 2022, demand for the trucks is expected to remain high.

“Overall, we expect counterbalance orders to rise 33% this year. In 2022 we expect bookings to exceed 2019 levels after rising 17%,” adds the forecast.

If anything, the picture within the warehouse sector is even more positive, as growing consumer demand again influenced the market. The Oxford Economics report predicts e-commerce sales are likely to remain high going into 2022, relative to pre-Covid levels, despite shops reopening.

“We expect bookings will rise 42.5% in 2021 which will bring the sector 15% above 2019 levels,” states the report.

Tim Waples (pictured), CEO of UKMHA, said: “While these results reflect the continuous growth trend for 2021, they will make pleasant reading for our manufacturers and dealers, who have endured a torrid 18 months due to the pandemic.

“If the predictions are correct and growth can be maintained into next year, then the UK material handling sector is looking at a very prosperous 2022. It is all the more disappointing therefore, that supply issues are disrupting shipment of new trucks. Let us hope the situation can be resolved sooner rather than later – for everyone’s benefit.”

Dunelm ready for DIRFT move

Posted on 23 November, 2021 by Keith McKinley

Dunelm Group Plc is set to move into its new Daventry (UK) warehouse at Prologis RFI DIRFT this December, creating up to 70 new jobs in the local area by the end of January 2022. The new site will be helping the retailer meet customer demand ahead of the festive period and then from January will be become a key element in the growth of Dunelm’s furniture business and providing better delivery service levels.

The move supports Dunelm’s focus on innovating and improving its customer proposition, as well as the growth in home delivery and click & collect operations that resulted from the pandemic.

Dunelm is one of the country’s leading homeware retailers, operating 175 shops across the UK. The company has taken a 10-year lease on the new logistics building at Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT) in the East Midlands, the leading rail served logistics park in the UK, which will be home to the Dunelm Home Delivery network and furniture range.

Classed as a nationally significant infrastructure project, DIRFT is one of the most successful intermodal (road/rail) logistics parks in the UK. From its location in the logistics ‘golden triangle’, at the heart of the UK’s motorway and rail network, the site has excellent road links to the M1 and M6 motorways, and to the West Coast Main Line. Home to household names such as Sainsbury’s and Tesco, the site’s transport links have played a significant role in keeping goods and services flowing around the country during the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to do so during the current supply chain crisis.

“We’ve worked with Dunelm for a long time, and seeing this project come to completion is testament to the strength of our relationship,” said Tom Price, capital deployment and leasing director at Prologis UK. “The new facility will be pivotal in helping the business further grow its online retail operations and create a significant number of jobs for the local area. DIRFT continues to be an incredibly popular prospect for businesses looking to harness the power of multimodal freight and further extensions to the site will provide even more opportunities for businesses which want to strengthen their presence in the golden triangle.”

Dunelm’s new building will also reflect the company’s ambitious targets around sustainability and carbon reduction, with an EPC ‘A24’ rating, a BREEAM rating of ‘excellent’ and features such as 15% roof lights, rainwater harvesting, and LED lighting. The building has also had its environmental credentials certified by The Planet Mark and is mitigating 100% of the embodied carbon involved in its construction. Thanks to Prologis’ partnership with climate action charity, Cool Earth, the construction of DIRFT III DC4 will help protect 136 acres of rainforest, over 30,000 trees, and support 652 people in Sololo, Southern Papua New Guinea.

Richard Street, Supply Chain Development Director, Dunelm Group PLC, said: “Our new DIRFT warehouse facility is an important move for Dunelm – not only is the location excellent for better serving our customer needs but the new site will make a significant contribution to our improving our environmental footprint.”

Rapid Order Processing at Very’s Automated DC

Posted on 22 November, 202131 July, 2025 by David Priestman

Advanced automation technology from Knapp is helping The Very Group to fulfil customer orders in just 30 minutes at Skygate, its new distribution centre in the East Midlands (UK).

Launched on the day that the UK’s first lockdown was announced in March 2020, the 850,000 sq ft facility has secured a number of benefits for the online retailer and its customers, including greater product availability, faster refunds and enhanced ability to handle peak trading periods.

“A fast, seamless fulfilment operation is vital for great customer experience, and that’s what we focused on when developing Skygate’s highly automated technology,” commented Phil Hackney, Chief Operating Officer at The Very Group. “Throughout the pandemic, that technology has helped us to manage huge volumes of orders. It also enabled us to bring all of our clothing and footwear returns under one roof for the first time and means we’re well positioned for future growth.”

Despite a surge in orders during its first year as the pandemic fuelled demand for e-commerce, Skygate managed to deliver the performance required by Very. The automated picking, sortation and packaging technology from KNAPP means that orders can be ready for dispatch within 30 minutes, compared to around four hours at Very’s previous fulfilment centres. The fastest order to date, processed in July 2021, was ready for dispatch in just 17 minutes.

Operating 24/7, Skygate has processed over 40 million items since its launch and has significant potential for future expansion. The efficiency of processes at the facility, combined with the consolidation of three sites into one fulfilment and returns centre, will contribute up to £25m in efficiency savings per year for The Very Group. Skygate’s central location – close to the M1 motorway and adjacent to East Midlands Airport – combined with the on-site rail freight terminal will save Very an estimated one million road miles a year.

Designed for peaks

With Skygate responsible for the fulfilment of 95% of the Group’s customer orders, KNAPP worked closely with Very to ensure that the automation would be able to handle peak volumes with the required speed and accuracy. The logistics technology enables the pre-picking of orders on high-traffic days, which helped Very to cope with record-breaking Christmas and Black Friday trading in 2020. Sales for Very.co.uk increased by over 25% year-on-year in the seven weeks to Christmas 2020, with Skygate processing an impressive 3.9 million orders during this period, peaking at 265 orders per minute.

Key to both rapid order fulfilment and efficient returns processing at Skygate is KNAPP’s EcoPocket system. This pocket sorter technology uses a matrix sortation algorithm to arrange products in RFID-enabled pockets into the correct sequence to fulfil customer orders at the packing stations.

Items are placed in the pockets at a series of workstations, where totes of product arrive automatically from KNAPP’s OSR Shuttle Evo storage system. Taking an item from a tote, the operator scans it and drops it into a pocket with a single swipe action.

One of the largest shuttle systems in Europe, the automatic store features over 400 shuttles and provides almost 640,000 storage locations. Combined with 120,000 pockets in the EcoPocket system and 26,000 pallet locations in the manual store, Skygate houses an

One-touch returns handling

The automated handling solution at Skygate also enables one-touch processing of returns, with products available for resale within 30 minutes and customer refunds provided faster than ever before. Returns are prioritized, with two-thirds leaving the site within 24 hours and the overwhelming majority within three days.

A vast dynamic buffer of EcoPockets on the third mezzanine level of the warehouse makes returns processing a breeze and gives Skygate the capacity to handle 80,000 returned items per day.

Also featuring a dispatch sorter with 96 destination chutes, the automated logistics solution is controlled by KNAPP’s KiSoft suite of software, comprising Warehouse Management System (WMS), Warehouse Control System (WCS) and machine control systems for seamless integration.

“We are extremely proud to have developed this brand-new distribution centre from concept to reality in just three years,” commented Anton Tschurwald, Vice President Retail Solutions for KNAPP AG. “A strong spirit of partnership with the customer meant that Skygate was delivered within budget and on time, despite going live during the COVID-19 lockdown.”

To keep the complex project on schedule despite the lockdown restrictions, KNAPP worked with Very to develop – within just a week – the infrastructure and processes to continue start-up of the system by the British team with support from technicians working remotely from Austria. “The significant challenges were overcome through a potent combination of teamwork and technology,” said Tschurwald.

To ensure maximum system uptime, a 33-strong team of KNAPP Customer Service technicians is based permanently at Skygate, carrying out comprehensive preventive maintenance and dealing quickly with any issues that arise.

FM Logistic expands Bauhaus contract

Posted on 22 November, 202131 July, 2025 by David Priestman

Third-party logistics company FM Logistic has renewed and expanded its e-commerce logistics contract with the German DIY retailer Bauhaus. The new contract has led to doubling the size of the Lovosice fulfilment centre, in the Czech Republic, from 30,000 to 60,000 sq m.

FM Logistic is managing Bauhaus’ online orders and distribution to consumers in Austria and Germany from Lovosice, a Czech town located near the German border. The cooperation started in 2018. Under the new contract, FM Logistic will handle a broader range of Bauhaus products. Bauhaus is indeed planning to bring the range of products stored in Lovosice from 30,000 to 100,000 SKU by 2030.

“In 2020, we handled 66% more orders than the year before. In 2021, we expect volume to increase by another 34%, which brings us to more than one million orders per year. To support this growth, we have been closely cooperating with Bauhaus to co-design and automate warehouse processes,” says Guilhem Vicaire, Business Solutions Director Central Europe at FM Logistic.

The contract covers further investments in automation. FM Logistic and Bauhaus have set up an on-demand packaging machine to produce the right size box for non-conveyable items. They have also invested in automated sorters and a goods-to-person picking system to improve order processing.

The additional warehousing space was delivered by P3 Logistic Parks. It was inaugurated in October 2021 by Johannes Wechsler, SVP E-Commerce & Digital at Bauhaus, and Jean-Christophe Machet, FM Logistic’s CEO.

“We decided to work with FM Logistic in 2018. Together we have succeeded in setting up an important link in our e-commerce logistics chain. We see FM Logistic as a strategic partner. That is why we have decided to extend our partnership by investing heavily in this fulfilment facility,” said Jérôme Biencourt, head of e-commerce logistics at Bauhaus.