Missing link for Morrisons
May 1st 2010 Link 51 plays key role with racking and
project management as Morrisons
deepens its roots in the South
To support the significant development being undertaken
by the Morrisons chain, the supermarket has opened its
latest distribution centre in Sittingbourne, Kent. This new
facility makes extensive use of Link 51 pallet racking to provide
approximately 50,000 pallet locations, enabling the site to
become central to Morrisons presence in the region.
Five beam levels plus the base are now available for storage
within the 450,000 sq ft ambient facility that provides
comprehensive storage across a wide range of Morrisons'
products. The Link 51 XL wide aisle system has been specified to
provide back-to-back racking throughout a total of 44 aisles. In
addition, a separate 270,000 sq ft area, dedicated to specific
storage requirements including bread, produce and chilled
products, uses Link 51 racking at key locations.
The layout makes the site one of the most versatile and
important within the company's network, as logistics
development controller John Passman explains: "The new facility
in Sittingbourne currently services up to 65 supermarkets across
the south-east of England and London and has the capacity to
increase that number.
"Importantly, this has given us the opportunity to grow our
retailer network via one distribution location that can handle
most of the ranges across most temperature regimes. At the same
time, the investment is seen as a key step in helping Morrisons to
build on its position as a truly national retailer."
Apart from installing the pallet racking system, Link 51 also
provided project management. This has seen the organisation
coordinating a number of additional services, including in-rack
sprinkler installation and floor contracting, to provide one point
of contact for the customer covering a wide range of project
requirements. The operation also now benefits from a
sophisticated, computerised WMS, allowing unit picking of items
from where they are moved to the despatch area for distribution
24 hours per day, seven days per week to stores across the region.
"We are delighted to have been involved in such a
comprehensive way at the Sittingbourne site, not least because
the project builds on a number of other installations that we
have undertaken for Morrisons," says Link 51's sales director,
Keith Evans. "It is particularly pleasing that the award of the
contract, which was made as a result of a stringent, competitive
tender process, was not based solely on price but also on the
quality of both the racking products and the services that we are
able to provide – not least our project management experience."
He says the Sittingbourne site adopted a proven Link 51
template, used elsewhere for Morrisons, which has allowed
optimum space utilisation to the full roof height to be centred on
standard pallet dimensions of 1000x1200mm stored two per bay.
"This is an important development for the company and one
which is central to our ongoing growth plans," adds Passman.
"The ability to store products efficiently and to enable retrieval to
meet customer requirements from our stores, while also reacting
to seasonal trends, is a key objective and one which Link 51 has
made a significant contribution
towards." More articles from Link 51 (Storage Solutions) Ltd: | 
