Dutch food retailer PLUS Retail B.V. is expanding its national distribution centre for dry goods in Oss in association with logistics partner WITRON Logistik + Informatik.
The reason for expansion is the merger of PLUS with the Dutch food retailer Coop, whose logistics processes will be partially integrated into the new highly automated PLUS distribution centre.
In 2023, the distribution centre will supply a substantial part of its 550 stores with more than 12,000 different items.
WITRON’s OPM, CPS, and DPS solutions can pick more than 452,000 cases onto roll containers or into store totes in a store-friendly and error-free way.
PLUS supply chain director, Rowell Versleijen, said, “Both PLUS and Coop place maximum focus on service quality, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and sustainability. That is why we embrace innovation and state-of-the-art technology in all areas of our business.”
The heart of the distribution centre is WITRON’s OPM system, originally designed for 20 COM machines, and will now see the addition of four COM machines.
The automated tray warehouse in front of the picking area will also be expanded by eight stacker cranes (48 in total) and 45,700 storage locations (274,500 in total).
The automated pallet warehouse will receive one additional stacker crane (11 in total) and 2,700 storage locations (29,500 in total).
The integration of all additional racking units, vehicles, depalletizers, stretch-wrappers, as well as their conveyor system and IT-based connections, will be carried out in the existing building.
Expansion options already planned for the warehouse will now be utilized.
Jack Kuypers, senior vice-president North-West Europe at WITRON, said, “Due to the modular design of our end-to-end solutions and their physical compactness, we can already develop highly flexible future concepts for our customers during the design phase, which can be conveniently integrated into an existing system to increase volume, grow product range, add pick stations, or change business and material flow processes.
"This is regardless of whether the system has been in operation for many years or, as in the case of PLUS – the system is being built.”
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