Organic growth
June 1st 2006

The flexibility offered by Interroll's Pushback Flow modules enables Coombe Farm to keep up with significant growth in demand for organic produce

Providing high quality food products with great taste and flavour requires a certain kind of environment. When Andrew Henry Warren, born in 1913, established a series of farms they prospered under his guidance. His original philosophy was preserved when the AH Warren Trust was formed in 1986 and continues today under the banner of Coombe Farm, with its dairy and distribution centre located in the rolling English countryside at Crewkerne, near Yeovil in Somerset.The total milk from the operation's farms and neighbours working alongside its business is in the region of 32 million litres per year from a total herd size of some 4000 cows. A complex management system is common throughout all the farms incorporating a co-ordinated policy for veterinary visits, plus purchases of feed, materials, machinery and services. All of the farms are accredited by Freedom Food, which involves regular animal welfare audits, and Coombe Farm has a growing commitment to organic farming methods.

Through its standards in both farming and production Coombe Farm can demonstrate complete traceability of milk through to its final product.

A tremendous growth in demand for organic produce has led to a significant expansion at Coombe Farm, with the construction of new facilities and the adoption of new, more flexible means to achieve efficient materials handling flow and keep pace with its customers. An important part of this programme was the refurbishment of the 160 m2 chill store that holds the fruit products Coombe Farm also manufactures to customer order and specifications for the food industry.

A flexible replacement for tired drive-in racking

Stock in the chill store was previously held in a "tired" drive-in racking system that needed replacing so Coombe Farm turned to main contractor, Total Interiors Direct Limited, for a solution. Interroll's Pushback Flow concept was recommended.

"While a new drive-in racking system would have been the cheaper option, it wouldn't have provided the flexibility - the key factor for us," says Richard Hooper, Warehouse and Logistics Manager at Coombe Farm. And flexibility is just what the Cart Push Park offers, enabling specific pallets to be retrieved more quickly and easily.

Interroll's Pushback Flow utilises carts within a lane which, when extended, link together. Incorporated into Travhydro Pallet Racking at Coombe Farm the system has 270 positions for plastic pallets. Each pallet holds up to 500 kg of fruit preparation. Laid out on either side of a central aisle the system comprises 26 bays, three levels high to provide a total of 54 lanes, five pallets deep.

Building orders within the system Fruit preparation is mixed, packed, labelled and then palletised. In a simple forklift truck operation palletised goods flow into the store from production. On one side of the store, goods are held in stock. Goods can also be sent straight to the other side of the store, where orders for customers can be built within the system.

Approximately 50 pallets go in and out of the system per day.

"Another important benefit is a much reduced risk of damage compared to drivein, where lift trucks have to enter the racking," says Richard. Interroll designed the solution so that when the 1200 x 1000 mm plastic pallets, which have a lip around them to prevent sliding, come down the lanes to meet the lift truck drivers they can be removed easily without catching.

So impressed was Coombe Farm with the Interroll concept they decided to use it in the freezer store within the newly constructed 400m2 distribution centre.

Here, Interroll provided another 592 pallet places of Pushback Flow, configured in 138 lanes of two-deep and 79 lanes of fourdeep, to hold frozen fruit ready for processing.

What the customer says

"We are very satisfied with the Interroll Cart Pushback solution in the chill store.

That's why we installed it in the new building and that says it all." Richard Hooper, Warehouse and Logistics Manager, Coombe Farm.

More articles from Interroll Automation: