Danny Gotink: “Thank you! For us, this is a highly strategic project that will enable us to meet our rapid growth, while also attracting even more stakeholders in the process. We are moving from a manual to a semi-automated warehouse, which is intended to make us much more efficient and greatly reduce our overall lead time. While that is a very important factor, apart from quantitative growth, the site will also play host to the development of additional services for our customers. We also want to provide our employees with a modern, ergonomic and pleasant working environment.”

Piet Van Eenoo: “We are also aiming to achieve 'Excellent' BREEAM certification. This means making serious efforts in terms of developing sustainable practices and performance. Green energy obviously cannot be left out of this.”

Piet: “The focus of the concept is on consolidation, simultaneously bringing together materials from different zones. We have an area for cables, a VNA warehouse for big boxes and a bin warehouse for smaller materials (OSR). While picking and packing small materials into recycling bins, materials from the VNA are brought upstairs on pallets using Fraxinus' lift installation. Boxes are then taken off the pallet onto a tray and, like the small bins, also head for the consolidation zone, where 496 outlets have been provided for. Ultimately, we will be bringing more than 85% of the materials ordered to one place, which is quite unique. Once the cage or pallet is filled for a particular customer or shop, it is brought down through the second lift installation, which is equipped with two separate lifts, before being dropped off at the appropriate dock."

Piet: “Absolutely. We insisted on making the two inbound and outbound lifts independent from one another. This means that, should one lift fail, it will not affect the other.”

Piet: “We immediately felt that Fraxinus was very much in tune with our needs, and this is a great example of it. Also, during the engineering phase, we decided together to make another major modification with an additional lift in the VNA zone to improve working conditions, as well as people's safety. You also don't shy away from generously sharing your expertise, and that ensures that we have a partnership, rather than a customer-supplier relationship.”