Clipper has opened a new transport hub in the Pinnacles in Harlow, to service retailers in London the South East.
The site, which will house a fleet of 50 vehicles, will also operate as a shared-user DC and host Clipper’s retail deconsolidation solution for Regent Street, which reduces road miles, congestion and emissions by making multiple retailer deliveries in one journey.
Operations director, Nigel Hinds said: “We had been searching for a larger site that can accommodate customer growth plans for a while, and the benefits of the Harlow location for ease of ‘cross dock’ operations are already apparent.”
* LB Foster Materials Handling has completed a contract at Clipper’s Selby distribution centre. Designed to handle fashion online returns under the Clipper ‘Boomerang’ brand, the mechanisation project includes conveyor systems for totes and 125 work stations.
Selby is a multi-user retail logistics site with a dedicated area for fashion returns. The majority of the returns arrives at Selby via parcel carriers who bring in parcels from world-wide locations. Since start up the operation has handled a peak season with over 400 team members processing merchandise. The facility has tremendous flex capacity, and could easily handle over 30-40 million returns a year. The returned goods include clothing, footwear, jewellery and accessories.
Paul Heaton, head of operational support for Clipper said: “Initially we had planned to process 250,000 returns in a peak week however the shared user success of “Boomerang”, the Clipper returns solution, has created a reality of closer to 500,000 at the Selby site. LB Foster proved their flexibility by accommodating this raised throughput, reviewing the design and layout of the system, adding in an extra conveyor and additional workbenches. This allowed us to plan the capacity to handle the extra units while sticking to the original project deadline.”
