Racking for retail
December 1st 2005

Whether it's for companies fully embracing internet ordering or good old fashioned high street chains, Linpac Storage Systems delivers effective solutions for its customers in the retail market

Despite fiscal predictions of a more frugal festive season this year, as Christmas rapidly approaches many of us will once again be caught up in the inevitable stampede around the local shopping centre in frantic a last minute bid to find the perfect gift. Or, maybe you are more organised and have used the Internet to order and arrange convenient delivery to your door. Whether you panic buy at the last minute, or order way in advance, you can be sure that behind the scenes a huge range of handling and storage equipment has been used in order to get the goods to you.

Boden

One of the UK's fastest growing companies, mail-order and internet retailer Boden sells a distinctive range of clothing for men, women and children. As part of the company's continued expansion it has invested in a bespoke storage solution from Linpac Storage Systems to complete the second phase of its Leicester based warehouse operations. The challenge was to maximise the remaining capacity within the building whilst incorporating some new features that would be of benefit in the medium to long term.

"We selected Linpac Storage Systems to handle the second phase of our storage solution," said operations development manager Peter Lemon. "We knew what we wanted yet Linpac challenged our design and we liked that! Their prognosis proved correct and, for example, we changed the design to move a staircase from its original position to free up more room for storage."

He continued: "Their price was competitive too, but the most important criteria for us was that we selected the right solution - the most practical that would work for us. They worked with us to provide the best possible layout and then liaised closely with our insurers and all parties involved in the project."

In the completed second storage phase, the Boden products are now stored on a three tier rack supported solution. On the ground floor garments are picked from boxes placed on shelving. Individual items on clothes hangers are stored on the second floor on a garment hanging system and the top floor consists of boxed replenishment stock. A conveyor positioned at the back of the warehouse takes stock from the top floor down to the two floors beneath.

Linpac has installed heavy duty Longspan shelving in a four high shelf configuration to accommodate four/five levels of Boden's boxed products on both the ground floor and the top tier of storage.

The garment hanging solution on the second floor has been tailor-made to provide three tiers of hanging storage complete with neat catch netting. For Boden the additional row of hanging storage gives an extra six months' life to the warehouse.

Woolworths

In another job for a prominent retail client, Linpac has also supplied Woolworths' Rugbybased distribution centre with a pallet racking storage solution to accommodate over 8000 pallets. The contract to install the additional racking and reconfigure the existing installation at the DC was awarded to systems integrator, SDI Greenstone, who sourced Linpac to supply the racking.

Operated by Wincanton, the DC now has 15 additional runs of double-entry wide aisle pallet racking together with two runs of single entry racks. The runs of racking, which are over 60m long, are configured to store pallets on six levels. This new racking significantly increases the storage capacity of the warehouse as the products stored in it were previously block-stacked on the floor.

A drive through bay, 4m wide has been incorporated into the racking for ease of access and robust tubular protection barriers have been erected to prevent damage to the racking at the run ends. Costs are kept to a minimum if damage occurs along the runs of racking as Linpac has incorporated a replaceable section in the most vulnerable part of the front uprights.

The addition of an extra level of racking, which has been bolted on to the existing racking in the DC, has been a cost effective method of providing Woolworths with further storage capacity.

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