Fork lift manufacturer and internal materials handling company Atlet, has supplied a fleet of 72 lift trucks to the value retailer Instore (formerly Poundstretcher). Instore has recently built a new distribution centre in Huddersfield and one of the main reasons for specifying Atlet, was its ability to supply the different types of trucks needed for the new facility. The new DC features a variety of storage and handling systems and Atlet are required to support their round-the-clock operations with a guaranteed maintenance and rapid-response service back up.
The new Huddersfield DC is part of the £10m+ investment, in streamlining Instore’s distribution operations, it has installed five of Atlet’s Omni DCR man-up VNA stacker/pickers, seven Presto PLP pallet transporters, 37 Select TPL low-level order pickers and 17 UNS Tergo reach trucks, 12 of which are equipped to operate in double-deep racking. As part of the deal, Atlet has also supplied six LPG counterbalance trucks and around 100 hand pallet trucks. The DC is currently dispatching more than 1000 pallet loads of orders each day and holds a capacity of around £17m worth of stock.
Instore has undertaken a major restructuring of its warehousing and distribution activities and has recently consolidated several older warehouses into the new, custom-built 32,500 sq m building. John Franklin of Logistics & Interim Management Services, the consultants charged with managing the re-engineering of Instore’s distribution operations said: “The different types of storage systems, along with the loading, unloading and order picking operations, required several different kinds of lift truck. The ability to source all these trucks from one supplier –Atlet – is of course a major benefit.”
