A merger between Dutch food retailers PLUS Retail B.V. and COOP has created the third largest full-service food retailer in the Netherlands, spurring an expansion of the PLUS DC in Oss, NL. The merger brings together 550 stores serving over 4.5 million customers per week. PLUS is increasing the capacity of WITRON’s Order Picking Machinery (OPM), Car Picking System (CPS), and Dynamic Picking System (DPS) solutions to service the expanded and highly automated DC.
To accommodate the increased throughput, the PLUS facility in OSS will upgrade the existing WITRON OPM from 20 to 24 Case Order Machines (COM). In front of the picking area, the automated tray warehouse will expand from 40 to 48 stacker cranes. It will include an additional 45,700 storage locations, bringing the total to 274,500 storage locations.
The automated pallet warehouse will receive an additional stacker crane, totaling 11 stacker cranes. The storage locations increased by 2,700 more locations bringing the pallet warehouse to 29,500 storage locations. The added racking units, vehicles, depalletizers, stretch wrappers, conveyor systems, and IT-based connections will integrate with the existing building.
“Due to the modular design of our end-to-end solutions and their physical compactness, we can 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,” said Jack Kuypers, Senior Vice President of North-West Europe at WITRON.
When completed in 2023, the PLUS DC in Oss will feature over 12,000 different items, with a projected annual throughput of 452,000 picked cases sorted onto roll containers or into store totes thanks to WITRON automation.
“Both PLUS and COOP place maximum focus on service quality, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and sustainability.” According to PLUS Supply Chain Director Rowell Versleijen. “That’s why we embrace innovation and state-of-the-art technology in all areas of our business.”
