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Prologis aims to bring seasonal cheer

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Leading logistics property company Prologis will be giving back to charities across the UK and Europe when it embarks upon its ‘dock doors of giving’ campaign for the fourth year running.

The event will see employees, along with their counterparts based in the company’s office across Europe, raising money, donating much-needed items and giving up their time to support local charities throughout the month of December.

The annual charitable giving campaign was named ‘the dock doors of giving’, after the numbered dock doors on the company’s warehouses served as inspiration for a reverse advent calendar which has now become a month-long campaign of giving back to the charities and communities close to its Prologis Parks.

Organised by the Prologis EU Charity Action Team (CHAT), along with the company’s employees, customers, and supply chain, this year’s goal is to raise more than £178,000 (€200,000) to support a selection of charities, communities, and causes over the festive season.

First introduced in the UK in 2018, the company decided to extend the fundraising initiative across its European business for the first-time last year and returned over £244,000 (€275,000) to charities across Europe, outperforming the initial target of £178,000 (€200,000).

Among the UK-based charities who will receive support from the fundraising campaign this year are Acorns Children’s Hospice, Birmingham and Solihull Women’s Aid and Warwick-based charity Molly Olly’s Wishes (pictured). In total, 78 charities (29 UK charities and 49 charities across Europe) will benefit from this year’s campaign.

Paul Weston, Prologis UK regional head, said: “Giving back to charity and supporting the communities close to our Prologis Parks and offices is an important part of our culture and is integral to our ParkLife initiative.

“The pandemic has left many people reliant on the help of charities and good causes at a time when many have seen donations fall away or decrease and I’m enormously proud of the way our teams work tirelessly to volunteer, raise much-needed funds and donate essential items to help make Christmas that little but brighter for those in need.”

Rachel Ollerenshaw set up Molly Olly’s Wishes in 2011 following the death of her daughter Molly to a rare kidney cancer. The Charity emotionally supports children with life-threatening illnesses and their families across the UK and is well-known for its therapeutic toy lion, Olly the Brave.

Rachel said: “We are so grateful to Prologis for picking us to take part in this ‘dock doors of giving’ campaign. Each gift we give to a child is around £500 so all funds donated and raised through this partnership will help to make such a difference to seriously ill children and young people. Our mission is to help make the dark days brighter so thank you Prologis for helping us to do just that.”

Briggs acquires long-established UK forklift dealer

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Briggs Equipment has completed the acquisition of materials handling dealer, Forkway Group.

Operating from three UK sites in Amersham, Dewsbury and Southampton, Forkway has supplied industrial equipment and expert engineering services to customers since 1961 with a philosophy and commitment that perfectly complements the Briggs Proposition. The company, which has been a sub-dealer of Briggs for 10 years, is well respected within the industry for its commitment to customer service and has a loyal and diverse customer portfolio that covers key geographical areas.

Briggs Equipment says this acquisition further strengthens its position as the UK & Ireland’s leading asset management and engineering services specialists, whilst ensuring Forkway customers benefit from access to a wider range of high-quality products and supporting services. The two companies already have an established and valuable working partnership through the sub-dealer arrangement that has existed successfully for 10 years.

Pete Jones, Briggs Equipment’s Group Managing Director, commented: “With the acquisition of Forkway, we are delighted to have brought a strong and long-standing business partner fully within the Briggs Group. Their skilled employees, extensive customer portfolio and synergy with our own customer base means they are a further valuable addition to the Briggs Equipment Group.

“We continue to build on our recent acquisition activity and this latest deal underlines our ambition and focus to grow the Group and ultimately provide unrivalled service and coverage to our customers. Forkway has a proven track record of success that’s been built over a number of decades and whilst we will expand the overall capability of the business, we also recognise the importance of nurturing and protecting those unique and long-lasting customer partnerships.”

“As with all our acquisitions, we want to work with businesses that share the same values and culture as ourselves and through our experience of working with the team at Forkway, we’re confident that they will be quickly become an integral part of the Briggs Equipment Group.

“We look forward to welcoming the Forkway team into our business, working closely with them and providing the appropriate investment and support to ensure the company can continue to prosper and fulfil its huge potential.

Richard Greaves, Forkway’s Group Director, commented: “This acquisition will allow our business to accelerate its development as part of a values orientated, industry recognised and highly successful organisation. The positive culture and ambition that runs throughout Briggs will help our people thrive in their roles, whilst delivering key improvements to our product and service offering.

“I’d like to thank everyone involved with the acquisition for their hard-work and we’re now looking forward to settling in and establishing Forkway as a key part of the Briggs Equipment Group.”

Nerak Wiese strengthens UK team

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Vertical elevation specialist, Nerak Wiese Ltd, has promoted three members of its team to enhance its capabilities as demand for its solutions continues to grow.

Scott Amber, Josh Williams and Josh Kerr are all stepping up to more senior roles in the UK division of the global material handling company. “With a healthy order book and a high number of enquiries as businesses increasingly seek to automate their logistics and production processes,” commented John Oakley, Managing Director, “we are making these promotions to strengthen our technical, design and project management capabilities.”

Scott Amber has been promoted to the Board as a Director. He joined Nerak in 2013 as a Project Engineer, was promoted to Senior Project Engineer in 2018 and became Head of Design & Development last year. With a degree in Industrial and Product Design, he brings considerable engineering insight to Board decision-making.

A Design Engineer with Nerak since 2017, Josh Williams is being promoted to the role of Project Manager. Josh is a Product Design and Innovation graduate with proven skills in both engineering design and customer relationship management.

Also moving up to the role of Project Manager is Josh Kerr. With a degree in Mechanical Engineering, he joined Nerak earlier this year as a Solutions Design Engineer but has already demonstrated a clear ability to progress.

Nerak designs, manufactures and installs automated lifting and conveying solutions for both bulk goods and unit loads, with key products including continuous platform elevators, pallet lifts, bucket conveyors and reciprocating hoists. The company has supplied vertical elevation systems for clients in diverse sectors including GlaxoSmithKline, JD Sports, John Lewis, Unilever and XPO Logistics.

Pictured (left-right): Josh Kerr, Scott Amber and Josh Williams

Waitrose expands warehouse with AR Racking

Posted on by Keith McKinley

The renowned supermarket chain brand Waitrose & Partners has increased its storage capacity with the extension of its facilities in Magna Park (Milton Keynes, UK) to consolidate its position as a leader in its sector in the British market. To do so, it has relied on AR Racking, a European benchmark in storage systems.

The new extension consists of an intralogistics solution with AR Racking’s adjustable pallet racking that achieved an added storage capacity for 13,604 UK pallets. It is a storage system that will provide the warehouse with great agility in loading and unloading operations, with direct and immediate access to the goods. A solution perfectly adapted to the increase in demand for consumer goods and the demand on delivery times.

Waitrose is owned by the John Lewis Partnership retail group, the largest example of an employee-owned business in the UK with over 80,000 members. “Our aim is for Waitrose to remain the supermarket chain most valued by the British people and to do that we need a logistics infrastructure that allows us to hold more stock of products that can be delivered in less time,” explained Lawrence Ireson, Project Manager of the John Lewis Partnership. “We knew that AR Racking would meet their promises on this strategic extension.”

“This is a project that is tailored to the client’s needs and characteristics,” said Mike Smyth, UK Key Account Manager at AR Racking. “The racks have a paint finish in Waitrose’s corporate green colour.”

“We have strictly adhered to the delivery and installation schedules agreed with Waitrose, whose standards are exacting,” added Jim Albans, AR Racking’s UK Project Manager.

AR Racking, based in Maidenhead, has a well-established presence in the UK thanks to a service tailored to customers’ needs and the ability to deliver large projects to tight deadlines.

Past the parcel – Amazon vs. Independent BPO

Posted on 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 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.”

Dunelm ready for DIRFT move

Posted on 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.”

Pyroban acquires MEWP manufacturer Euro Access

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Explosion-proof safety company Pyroban has acquired specialist work platform manufacturer Euro Access Ltd in Cork, Ireland. The purchase has allowed the original founders to retire knowing their legacy will live on in a company they founded more than 20 years ago.

Euro Access, founded in 1996, manufactures ground support equipment specifically used for the maintenance of military aircraft. The specially designed access platforms enable maintenance engineers to reach the nosecone and other confined areas of the fighter jets.

“The area around each aircraft is formally classified as Zone 1, meaning a potentially explosive atmosphere is likely to occur during normal operations, so the access platform must be explosion-proof and meet ATEX 2G compliance,” says Steve Noakes, Managing Director of Pyroban. “To support safety, Pyroban was involved in the equipment’s original design process and certification in the 1990s with Euro Access’ founders Paul and Michael.”

Since then, Pyroban has continued to supply Euro Access with hundreds of explosion-proof kits which are fitted on the production line in Cork, Ireland. The strong relationship that developed led the founders to approach Pyroban as a suitable new owner in early 2021.

“Euro Access fits perfectly within our portfolio because it has great synergies with Pyroban’s innovative, safety-driven culture and bespoke engineering capabilities,” says Noakes. “It is also aligned with our existing support for many organisations in the military and aerospace sectors and opens up further opportunities to expand our offerings.  We are proud to be the new owners of Euro Access, starting a new and exciting chapter in the long-standing relationship.”

Euro Access was started by Paul McHugh and Michael Buckley, who had previously worked for leading Mobile Elevated Work Platform (MEWP) manufacturers. They saw an opportunity to develop the specialist equipment due to their technical knowledge, understanding of the military application, and ATEX experience. The company soon became an Approved supplier to BAE Systems Ltd. (formerly British Aerospace) and the wider military partnerships globally.

“Euro Access has been our passion for the last 25 years, but it is time for us to retire and let our legacy live on with a strong custodian that has the same values, principles and engineering excellence,” says McHugh.

Sussex (UK)-based Pyroban provides explosion protection conversions for materials handling equipment, including many other brands and types of MEWP. It also delivers and maintains explosion protected diesel engine packages and kits for well service applications. Pyroban is part of the Longacre Group, with strong financial backing to support ambitious acquisition plans over the next five years.

AR increases capacity by 40% for AZA Logistics

Posted on by Keith McKinley

The AZA Group, which has been strengthening the logistics strategy of its subsidiary AZA Logistics, has opened an ambitious logistics warehouse in Sagunto (Valencia) with a capacity for 45,000 pallets thanks to AR Racking’s industrial storage solutions.

The 25,000 sq m warehouse will be fully optimised with VNA racking designed, manufactured and installed by AR Racking. This type of racking is a high-density storage solution that can increase warehouse capacity without having to increase the space. Greater compaction is mainly created by narrowing the work aisles, which can reduce the width by up to 1.85m and save up to 40% in space. The industrial racking installed is 19m high.

During a second phase which will be completed in the coming months, another storage area will be installed with a capacity for a further 6,000 pallets. An area of the warehouse that will be adapted to maintain a controlled temperature from 10°C to 25°C in Phase 1 and from 5°C to 10°C in Phase 2 for the planned storage of pharmaceutical and food sector products.

The new logistics platform confirms the group’s firm commitment to its comprehensive logistics operator AZA Logistics. “Undoubtedly this warehouse represents a major milestone in AZA Logistics’ history,” commented Juan Zamorano, CEO of the AZA Group. “We are very satisfied with the quality of the installation and strict completion of deadlines provided by AR Racking.”

In addition to AR Racking’s storage solutions, the warehouse includes the latest technology for the preparation of pallets and other unit loads, positioning AZA Logistics as a leading 4PL logistics operator.

Vicente Marin, AR Racking’s Sales Representative in the Levante region, added: “After initial conversations with the AZA team, we immediately identified that we needed an agile warehouse. VNA racking allows a loading and unloading operation with direct and immediate access to the goods, minimising times.”

This type of racking which is also operated by turret trucks (Combi) makes great use of the available height in the warehouse, optimising the storage space to the full.

The project was executed with a perfect coordination in the delivery of materials and assembly of the structure, strictly meeting the deadlines.

CLICK HERE to watch the video.

 

Kent sees record growth in logistics

Posted on by Keith McKinley

According to data sourced from the Office for National Statistics, the logistics and distribution sector across the Kent and Medway region of the UK has grown by 60.6% since 2016, with 2,000 jobs created over the same period and 3,600 businesses now operating in the sector.

Gravesham, Dartford, Medway, Maidstone and Swale are performing above the national average in terms of sector size, contributing to an industry that has seen a 48.1% increase in GVA countywide since 2000. That figure, as of 2018, stood at an estimated £2.3bn per year.

Gavin Cleary, CEO of Locate in Kent, explains there are several factors at play including the availability of lower cost industrial and commercial spaces on brownfield sites, increased housing development across the county and the strategic location of Kent and Medway as a gateway between London and Europe.

“Franzosini & Butti, Coyote Logistics UK Limited, TNT Express Limited and Amazon UK are some of the large operators that have chosen Kent & Medway since 2015, confirming our region as a prime location for logistics for nearly every sector,” said Cleary. “And we’re seeing no sign of that easing as the UK emerges from the pandemic with continued strong demand. We have a number of exciting new sites coming through between now and the end of 2023, with a significant number already pre-let.”

One of the biggest drivers for this success has been the rise of e-commerce and the continued shift towards online retail, with the Covid-19 pandemic only serving to accelerate that trend. And with prime locations in the sector’s Golden Triangle along the M1 corridor in the East Midlands at saturation point, Kent and Medway is one of the areas benefitting as couriers and distributors look elsewhere.

Companies working in the sector have also highlighted driver welfare and environmental concerns as important factors that are helping to increase the competitiveness of Kent and Medway as a key hub for the logistics and distribution sector.

Neil Cursons, Managing Director of Kent firm George Cursons which launched its new frozen foods processing and distribution plant for the UK hotel and catering trade at Manston, Thanet, in October, said: “Kent is a fantastic location for business. With its proximity to London and the Channel Ports and the sector’s drive to be more sustainable, the county has great potential to grow further in the logistics and distribution space.

“Dover is one of the main arrival points for frozen fish, but rather than those shipments going up north to be processed we chose to keep it here, saving on transport and cutting pollution. That’s the opportunity we saw in wanting to open this facility.

“We are looking at how we can expand on this further to help us meet regional demand. Our belief is that local is better. We can tap into existing supply chains and build from there.”

The following schemes are expected to launch by 2023, adding an estimated 12.5 million sq ft (1.16 million sq m) of additional space for the logistics and transportation sector, with Mid and North Kent the areas to benefit.

  • 3.92 million sq ft (365,000 sq m) of logistics and manufacturing space at J4/M20 with Panattoni securing permission to transform the former Aylesford Newsprint Site.
  • 5.2 million sq ft (483,000 sq m) of logistics, manufacturing, and energy production at the former Kingsnorth Power Station in Medway
  • 500,000 sq ft (46,500 sq m) of warehouse and office space at Woodcut Farm in Maidstone, located off Junction 8 of the M20
  • 800,000 sq ft (74,500 sq m) of warehouse and office space at Kingstanding in Tunbridge Wells
  • 450,000 sq ft (42,000 sq m) of warehouse space at Powerhouse in Dartford
  • 100,000 sq ft (9,250 sq m) of speculative warehouses at Goodmans in Dartford
  • Enhanced production corridors, including Innovation Park Medway which once complete, will provide over one million sq ft (93,000 sq m) of space for high-value technology, advanced manufacturing, engineering, and knowledge-intensive businesses

Locate in Kent is the inward investment agency for Kent and Medway. Its aim is to encourage and support more businesses to set up and expand in the county. It offers a bespoke support to investors including market insights, property searches, advice on financial support available, and connections to local partners, suppliers and business networks.

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