HelloFresh Distribution Centre in Prime Location

Global meal kit company HelloFresh is on a mission to change how people eat. Driven by the rising appeal of meal kits, the company needed a new production facility to support its rapid UK growth.

HelloFresh helps consumers to cook home-made, healthy meals with no preparation, shopping or hassle, using fresh, sustainably-sourced ingredients, produced, packed and delivered directly to their doorsteps. Driven by its rapid growth, the meal kit company needed a new production facility to meet the needs of its expanding customer base.

The business needed a facility in a prime location, able to provide fast, efficient access to consumers. In line with HelloFresh’s commitment to the highest quality fresh produce, the facility needed to provide frozen, chilled and ambient storage capacity and highly flexible warehouse space to suit its production and packing methods. HelloFresh is passionate about sustainability – the new facility had to align with business aims to mitigate the environmental impact of its growth.

The Beehive

Goodman worked closely with HelloFresh to deliver its newest production and distribution centre in Nuneaton, named the ‘Beehive’ by the employees. The second of HelloFresh’s UK facilities, The Beehive covers 230,384 sq ft of prime distribution and logistics space – roughly the size of three football pitches.

Strategic location

The Beehive’s excellent connectivity, which places 58.5 million consumers within a four-hour drivetime, means it is ideally suited to national fulfilment and fresh food delivery. Nuneaton’s strategic Midlands location, situated two miles from J3 of the M6 and close to Bermuda Park railway station, is also surrounded by ample local talent – 880 jobs were created at there.

“For us, it was how to scale operationally to feed the nation and support our customers, that was our biggest challenge,” said Laurent Guillemain, UK CEO, HelloFresh.

Focus on sustainability

The Beehive is a highly sustainable facility, boasting a five-star sustainability rating. The warehouse uses 100 per cent green energy, alongside a rainwater harvesting system, solar panels for heating water and infrastructure for electric vehicle charging. Goodman recently installed a 606kWp solar system to provide additional clean energy. Not only is the facility sustainable, but its location has enabled HelloFresh to reduce the distance travelled to deliver goods and reduce carbon emissions in line with its sustainability goals.

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Olympic Fencing Supplier Transforms Warehousing

Leon Paul, one of the world’s premier fencing equipment manufacturers, has transformed its warehousing and logistic operations and driven significant growth following its adoption of Forterro’s ERP and Warehouse Management Solution, Orderwise.

The 100-year-old family-run business produces and distributes 90% of its products from its London manufacturing and warehousing facility and had previously relied on a paper-based system. This was highly inefficient and resulted in a warehouse environment best described as ‘chaos’ and an estimated £150,000 wastage every year in lost time and products, according to James Fay, Commercial Director, Leon Paul:

“We had no control of ordering from stock to delivery, no barcoding technology in the warehouse, no form of KPIs to manage our performance. We couldn’t vet orders properly and weren’t even sure if products were being sent to the right places,” he said. “Morale was low amongst staff because they felt they couldn’t do their jobs to the best of their ability, and we were wasting money, time and products hand over fist. We were known for the quality of our fencing equipment, but our warehousing was far from Olympic standard. Orderwise was cost-effective and scalable, and it was actually recommended to me by a competitor, so it felt like the best fit for us right from the off.”

Since implementing Orderwise, Leon Paul has been able to automate many processes and see vast efficiency improvements. It has eased pressure on employees, improved order management and customer service, and delivered a ten-fold increase in order processing. Order shipping time went from an average of nine days to less than one day.

In a complex manufacturing environment — Leon Paul makes more than 3,000 SKUs, which can then become any one of 98,000 SKUs — Orderwise has become integral. It allows the business to make quick and informed decisions, and it has meant that when the company turned over £3.5m, there were seven people in the warehouse, whereas in 2024 (turnover of £10m), there are five.

Leon Paul has more than 75% of the UK market — including supplying the entire Team GB Olympic fencing team — and recently won the 2024 Kings Award for Enterprise in Innovation and Export, strengthening its recent strategy of focusing mostly on exports.

“To further our global growth plans, we needed a modern warehouse and an ERP system to support our e-commerce engine, ensuring our customers all over the world get the right product in good time,” continued James Fay. “Orderwise has done exactly that and more. Our global agents are also connected to it, and we now all have the information to make smarter, data-based decisions about the business.”

Orderwise is an ERP solution that provides wholesalers, distributors, retailers and manufacturers with a platform for growth. It was initially deployed by Leon Paul in operational logistics, sales, and customer service, followed by accounts, and is currently being implemented in the manufacturing plant.

“Leon Paul is an iconic UK manufacturer, rightly celebrated for its quality, longevity and commitment to fencing,” said Jon Roberts, Director, Forterro. “Our ERP solutions are all designed with specific industries in mind, and we are very proud that Orderwise has played a role in Leon Paul’s success.”

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Forterro Expands with Acquisition of Wise Software

 

Olympic Fencing Supplier Transforms Warehousing

Leon Paul, one of the world’s premier fencing equipment manufacturers, has transformed its warehousing and logistic operations and driven significant growth following its adoption of Forterro’s ERP and Warehouse Management Solution, Orderwise.

The 100-year-old family-run business produces and distributes 90% of its products from its London manufacturing and warehousing facility and had previously relied on a paper-based system. This was highly inefficient and resulted in a warehouse environment best described as ‘chaos’ and an estimated £150,000 wastage every year in lost time and products, according to James Fay, Commercial Director, Leon Paul:

“We had no control of ordering from stock to delivery, no barcoding technology in the warehouse, no form of KPIs to manage our performance. We couldn’t vet orders properly and weren’t even sure if products were being sent to the right places,” he said. “Morale was low amongst staff because they felt they couldn’t do their jobs to the best of their ability, and we were wasting money, time and products hand over fist. We were known for the quality of our fencing equipment, but our warehousing was far from Olympic standard. Orderwise was cost-effective and scalable, and it was actually recommended to me by a competitor, so it felt like the best fit for us right from the off.”

Since implementing Orderwise, Leon Paul has been able to automate many processes and see vast efficiency improvements. It has eased pressure on employees, improved order management and customer service, and delivered a ten-fold increase in order processing. Order shipping time went from an average of nine days to less than one day.

In a complex manufacturing environment — Leon Paul makes more than 3,000 SKUs, which can then become any one of 98,000 SKUs — Orderwise has become integral. It allows the business to make quick and informed decisions, and it has meant that when the company turned over £3.5m, there were seven people in the warehouse, whereas in 2024 (turnover of £10m), there are five.

Leon Paul has more than 75% of the UK market — including supplying the entire Team GB Olympic fencing team — and recently won the 2024 Kings Award for Enterprise in Innovation and Export, strengthening its recent strategy of focusing mostly on exports.

“To further our global growth plans, we needed a modern warehouse and an ERP system to support our e-commerce engine, ensuring our customers all over the world get the right product in good time,” continued James Fay. “Orderwise has done exactly that and more. Our global agents are also connected to it, and we now all have the information to make smarter, data-based decisions about the business.”

Orderwise is an ERP solution that provides wholesalers, distributors, retailers and manufacturers with a platform for growth. It was initially deployed by Leon Paul in operational logistics, sales, and customer service, followed by accounts, and is currently being implemented in the manufacturing plant.

“Leon Paul is an iconic UK manufacturer, rightly celebrated for its quality, longevity and commitment to fencing,” said Jon Roberts, Director, Forterro. “Our ERP solutions are all designed with specific industries in mind, and we are very proud that Orderwise has played a role in Leon Paul’s success.”

read more

Forterro Expands with Acquisition of Wise Software

 

Will the Olympic Games Disrupt Transport Operations in France?

From today France enters the spotlight with the Olympic Games. The preparations leading up to the games, as well as the event itself, are expected to significantly impact transport operations. Factors such as road closures, overall traffic, and increased security levels, all against the backdrop of rising transport demand associated with the event, will likely not just affect the Paris region but the entire country. Christian Dolderer, Lead Research Analyst at Transporeon, says now it’s a good time to assess what data and the derived KPIs show. Is there already an effect visible due to the event?

Spot prices are heavily influenced by the market forces of demand and capacity. While demand is expected to slightly increase, the market will likely face reduced capacity and increased inefficiencies due to the Olympic Games. This is expected to result in a continued increase in contracted load rejections (transports that are either timed out or rejected by carriers on the Transporeon platform) and a decrease in the number of offers per load on the spot market. The first metric indicates that more loads will be moved to the spot market, not only for the impacted weeks, but also for the preceding and following weeks. The second metric provides insight into market competition, reinforcing the basic theory that more offers lead to lower prices, and fewer offers lead to higher prices.

France domestic road transportation

In May 2024, during the public holiday season, France showed a strong market reaction with significant spot price increases. Offers and rejections followed the expected behaviour. This assessment is crucial to understand how the market is likely to react and to which level it will likely return to after these sportive weeks. Weeks 28 and 29 showed increasing prices while rejections and offers started to fall short.

Are we already seeing a clear and direct impact of the Olympic Games in these movements? I must answer with no.

Although initial signs, such as the described price increases and decreases of influencing factors, are visible and could be caused by the event, these changes could still be seen as usual spot market behaviour and fluctuations. What we can confirm is that, seven days before the Olympic Games, none of the prior described potential effects significantly affected the French domestic market. However, this does not necessarily mean that there will be no effect at all; it could still be too early to see a direct impact.

The expectation trend shows my expectation of price increases, including a high variance. So far, it’s hard to assess as spot rates could also easily take off in this tense market situation (Olympic Games and vacation season). Also at the borders to France, all is quiet so far. During the last hours and days, no unusual situation was monitored. Fears that the transport sector will face significant efficiency problems ahead of the event have not materialized yet.

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Container Ship in Marseille Welcomes Olympic Flame

 

Will the Olympic Games Disrupt Transport Operations in France?

From today France enters the spotlight with the Olympic Games. The preparations leading up to the games, as well as the event itself, are expected to significantly impact transport operations. Factors such as road closures, overall traffic, and increased security levels, all against the backdrop of rising transport demand associated with the event, will likely not just affect the Paris region but the entire country. Christian Dolderer, Lead Research Analyst at Transporeon, says now it’s a good time to assess what data and the derived KPIs show. Is there already an effect visible due to the event?

Spot prices are heavily influenced by the market forces of demand and capacity. While demand is expected to slightly increase, the market will likely face reduced capacity and increased inefficiencies due to the Olympic Games. This is expected to result in a continued increase in contracted load rejections (transports that are either timed out or rejected by carriers on the Transporeon platform) and a decrease in the number of offers per load on the spot market. The first metric indicates that more loads will be moved to the spot market, not only for the impacted weeks, but also for the preceding and following weeks. The second metric provides insight into market competition, reinforcing the basic theory that more offers lead to lower prices, and fewer offers lead to higher prices.

France domestic road transportation

In May 2024, during the public holiday season, France showed a strong market reaction with significant spot price increases. Offers and rejections followed the expected behaviour. This assessment is crucial to understand how the market is likely to react and to which level it will likely return to after these sportive weeks. Weeks 28 and 29 showed increasing prices while rejections and offers started to fall short.

Are we already seeing a clear and direct impact of the Olympic Games in these movements? I must answer with no.

Although initial signs, such as the described price increases and decreases of influencing factors, are visible and could be caused by the event, these changes could still be seen as usual spot market behaviour and fluctuations. What we can confirm is that, seven days before the Olympic Games, none of the prior described potential effects significantly affected the French domestic market. However, this does not necessarily mean that there will be no effect at all; it could still be too early to see a direct impact.

The expectation trend shows my expectation of price increases, including a high variance. So far, it’s hard to assess as spot rates could also easily take off in this tense market situation (Olympic Games and vacation season). Also at the borders to France, all is quiet so far. During the last hours and days, no unusual situation was monitored. Fears that the transport sector will face significant efficiency problems ahead of the event have not materialized yet.

read more

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WITRON’s Software Interface Offensive

A new generation of software interfaces is moving into logistics centres. A few months ago, WITRON launched its interface offensive – architecturally, in the UX process, and in visualization.

WITRON designs, implements, and operates highly dynamic distribution centres for retailers in Europe, North America, and Australia. Although the cost-efficiency and output of an overall system are, of course, always of primary importance, software Events interfaces are often the ‘moment of truth’ in a customer relationship for Dr. Stefan Bauer. For several years, he has been responsible for the software interface change project at the internationally successful family enterprise from Parkstein in Bavaria, Germany.

“With the interfaces, the customer experiences how user-friendly the software finally is”, explains Bauer who has taken WITRON’s interfaces to a new level together with his team. The task for him and his team was to establish browser-based applications in the WITRON system world. A big step for the intralogistics specialist. “We were increasingly faced with customer requests to address this topic. Software is changing. The demands from the consumer world are high. Customer requirements are also changing in terms of interfaces. Office products are no longer the benchmark. Mobile applications and web technologies are the standard.

“We can scale the interfaces dynamically and also offer the corresponding modern hosting options from On-Premise, Data-Center to Hyperscaler. And today in particular, this is an expectation that is very important, even for warehouse software”, explains Bauer. “Because state-of-the-art user software is defined by a wide range of criteria: a high level of functionality, stability, clarity, simplicity, performance, customized for the respective user in their specific work area.”

Pilot project: Browser-based WMS for customers from the healthcare sector

The Upper Palatinate-based company started from theory into practice with a North American customer from the healthcare sector. “We migrated a complete WMS to a browser-based application, which is being launched at more than 40 sites. Browser-based interfaces support different protocols on all end devices”, says Stefan Bauer. The transition to browser-based interfaces was complex and required close cooperation with technology partners such as Microsoft and Oracle. “We have not only adapted and enhanced our own framework such as MIS, but also re-designed the workstation dialogs”, emphasized Stefan Bauer.

New developer generation

The team implemented new tools based on a JavaScript program library to allow the development of flexible and scalable interfaces. The application is intuitive and always allows quick adjustments. WITRON uses this technology also for workstation dialogs. The application, a modern IT environment, is designed to make workplaces more attractive – for WITRON’s and the customers’ employees. A decisive differentiating criterion in today’s work environment. “In this project, we involve young developers, experienced web developers, and senior developers who have internalized the business processes. The result speaks for itself, a completely new dialog world that customers are familiar with from their daily business.” Bauer’s goal: An individualized customer interface without having to upgrade the hardware behind it.

Roadmap as the basis for further development

However, the change process for WITRON does not end with the completion and acceptance of the new software. “Another important step is software maintenance and permanent enhancement in close cooperation with the customer”, says Bauer. “The software maintenance process is defined on the basis of a service contract and implemented with the customer using a roadmap.”

While Bauer and his colleagues are responsible for the architecture, Dominik Simbeck makes the interfaces ‘pretty’. Simbeck grimaces. He doesn’t want to leave it at that. “User experience and usability is more than just applying corporate CI colors to the HMI. It’s not about making it look pretty, it’s more about efficiency and avoiding complexity”, he emphasizes. In recent months, he and his team have established a UX process in the company. The process is based on a classic design thinking approach. The goal is to identify user needs at an early stage and optimize processes accordingly. This begins with the theoretical design of the processes, followed by the creation of wireframes and iterative tests with end users. The process leads to the development of a UI prototype, which is then transmitted to the software developers. This approach allows to continuously improve the user interfaces and adapt them to the users’ needs. The migration to browser-based interfaces also required organizational adjustments at WITRON. A specialized UX team was formed to focus exclusively on optimizing the user experience. A consistent design system was introduced to ensure the quality and consistency of the interfaces. These measures do not only facilitate the development of new applications, but also improve the maintainability and enhancement of existing systems – both technologically and functionally

“Requirements change, there are new innovations from WITRON, and also the customer business changes. So, we have to keep pace with that. That’s why the UX topic is now also part of the production development process and a key driver behind the UI development. UX and user interface design in the industry sector is different to the consumer market”, emphasizes the specialist. One of the major challenges is adapting UX strategies to the specific requirements of industrial environments. For example, touch panels used in the frozen food environment at minus 26 degrees Celsius must also be operable with gloves and therefore require a different design than typical consumer tablets. The colour schemes and contrasts must also be adapted to the lighting conditions in warehouses.

Process stability and costs

The most important project for Dominik Simbeck’s team in recent months was the migration of the WITRON Warehouse Management System to a browser-based application as part of a project for a North American food retailer. This migration was not only driven by technology, but also offered the opportunity to fundamentally revise and optimize the user interfaces. “We were able to integrate user feedback directly into the optimization process. This approach enables us to identify specific potential for improvement, particularly in the area of data maintenance and master data registration.” Close cooperation with customers is an essential part of the UX process at WITRON. Dominik Simbeck’s team sent UX experts to customers to monitor and analyze current workflows and user interactions. “Specific pain points are identified through interviews and direct monitoring. This information flows into the optimization of the user interfaces to ensure intuitive and efficient use”, explains Dominik Simbeck. The customer was delighted. “Our team received a thank you letter from the employees, which doesn’t happen very often in the UX sector.”

And how does he measure the success of a good UX? “At WITRON, the success of the user interfaces is evaluated both through subjective user feedback and objective measurements. This involves observing how quickly and effectively the new interfaces are adapted and whether they lead to a reduction in operating errors and support requests.” Dominik Simbeck emphasizes that a good UX process has numerous advantages – for the customer and for WITRON. “The higher process stability in the system results in better availability, more efficiency, and higher output. The result is a reduction in hardware costs, a lower need for service staff, and considerable time savings – and last but not least – it creates attractive jobs for logistics employees.”

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