Operating out of five locations in the UK, Holdsworth delivers a wide range of quality frozen, chilled and ambient foods to the catering industry. To keep pace with growing demand the company has expanded, restructuring its warehousing facilities at Evesham and investing in a storage solution from LINPAC Storage Systems for its revamped freezer and dry goods facilities.
Ian Mycock, general manager of Holdsworth was instrumental in the decision to purchase new racking and shelving he comments, "With the growing success of our business and the increased product ranges we had to completely review our storage facilities in Evesham. Moving into two of the larger units on our original site alleviated the problem. However our existing racking wasn't suitable so we investigated five potential suppliers for a new, more efficient, storage solution.
"We chose to award the contract to LINPAC Storage Systems - although their tender wasn't the cheapest, it was definitely the best. LINPAC quickly got to grips with what we wanted and then were able to fine-tune their products to make us a bespoke solution. It's now in and operational and we are more than happy – in fact we can't fault them on their service."
Holdsworth's new freezer store is kept at a constant temperature of
-22 oC and houses the company's comprehensive range of frozen foods. Phase I of the operation was for LINPAC Storage Systems to design, manufacture and install a combined bulk and pick storage operation for this store. The challenge was to make the operation much more efficient by increasing the number of manual pick locations whilst condensing the area required for picking.
LINPAC's design positions the smaller frozen items which are manually picked into a single aisle of carton live storage at floor level located beneath double deep pallet racking.
Within the aisle, where there was originally room for two pallets in each bay, there are now 35 individual pick locations. Each pick location is backed up by constantly rotating stock which automatically replenishes the pick face. Holdsworth has recognised the particular benefits of carton live storage for the food industry due to the FIFO principles of stockholding.
Bulk stock in the cold store is located in double deep pallet racking on the top two levels of storage. This stock feeds the input into the back of the carton live beds beneath.
The second phase of the contract was for LINPAC to duplicate the advantages in efficiency that Holdsworth gained in the cold store into the dry store. This necessitated some amendments to the design to accommodate smaller quantities of product which are stored on Longspan shelving, a larger section of carton live storage and a separate chill store.
The stand alone Longspan shelving is located beneath the two levels of double deep pallet racking. As the company continues to expand, this area can be converted at a future date to accept carton live storage beds.
Mirroring the cold store, manual picking in the dry store is done from a dedicated area of carton live storage with a total of 2,500 individual picking locations. At the rear of the dry store the small chill store has been equipped with standard pallet racking.
Based in Milton Keynes, LINPAC Storage Systems is one of the leading British manufacturers of quality storage solutions. The company is part of the world renowned LINPAC Group of companies – the UK leader in storage and materials handling.
Holdsworth has grown to become one of the most respected food service distributors in the UK. With over 35 years of success, the company can guarantee service, quality, innovation, choice and value for money.
LINPAC Storage Systems is located at Garamonde Drive, Wymbush, Milton Keynes MK8 8ND telephone: 01908 561222, Fax: 01908 567455
e-mail: solutions@linpac-storagesystems.com
web: www.linpac-storagesystems.com