With a heritage stretching back 150 years, Christy is the UK's brand leader in bathroom towels. As part of a company re-organisation it was decided to move their storage and distribution operation from their Hyde, Manchester, head office and manufacturing facility to a 12,600 sq metre single storey building in nearby, Higher Openshaw.
Christy nominated a consultant, M2 Interim, to identify the storage requirement for the warehouse and nominate potential suppliers. After a technical evaluation by Dick Woodcock, associate partner of the consulting firm, and commercial negotiations with Christy UK, the order for the bespoke storage solution was awarded to LINPAC Storage Systems.
"LINPAC made every effort to present a very clear, straightforward tender within the time constraints," comments Dick Woodcock. "They were awarded the contract not only because of the quality of their response - which was far better than any of their competitors, but also because their price was competitive and they could meet the tight delivery programme thanks mainly to their UK manufacturing facility in Milton Keynes."
The innovative solution is designed to carry 4,000 stock lines of towelling in various stages of production, from large rolls of unfinished towelling on racking through to retail packs of the finished products which are hand picked from shelves.
Unfinished towelling stock (known as 'greige') arrives at the warehouse in rolls 900mm in diameter by 1000mm long. These are stored on LINPAC's wide aisle pallet racking. The racking is 7 levels high and each bay accommodates 3 rolls of towelling. To hold each of the large rolls in place within the bay, LINPAC designed a custom-built timber decked solution. Special location 'chocks' prevent any movement of the soft towelling rolls. There are a total of 2,800 greige locations.
Further wide aisle racking has been installed to accommodate Christy's sourced products. An additional 5,200 pallet positions are configured in 9 aisles of racking, all 5 pallets high. In front of the loading bays, in the dock area of the distribution centre, palletised sourced products can also be bulk stored in a section of 4 deep pushback racking.
The Hyde produced finished products are located on twelve aisles of LINPAC's versatile longspan shelving. Each bay is 2700mm wide by 750mm deep with 4 storage levels; mesh cladding to sides and rear keeps the wrapped product safely on the shelves in preparation for handpicking.
Through the cumulative knowledge of the consultants and LINPAC Storage Systems, Christy UK now has a highly efficient and cost effective distribution centre servicing its many customers in the UK, Germany and the USA.
For further information regarding the LINPAC range of high performance racking and shelving contact LINPAC Storage Systems, Garamonde Drive, Wymbush, Milton Keynes MK8 8ND telephone: 01908 561222, Fax: 01908 567455 e-mail: solutions@linpac-storagesystems.com
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