Close to Home - Morphy Richards

The company’s headquarters and distribution centre for its UK operations is based in Mexborough South Yorkshire. This site used to be a manufacturing facility for a range of irons and deep fat fryers. Consumer demand has seen a tremendous increase in the number of product lines, which Morphy Richards now offers. This meant that more and more storage space was required, the decision was taken, therefore, to cease manufacturing in Mexborough and convert the production facilities into additional warehousing.

A new 9000 pallet bulk storage warehouse was created, providing capacity for one thousand different product line and the operation was divided into two distinct phases. The morning shift is dedicated to goods receiving. On average, 500 pallet loads of product are received every day, this increases threefold at peak times, such as the run up Christmas. The pallets are put away in the racking and used to keep the ground floor pick faces replenished. The afternoon shift is responsible for picking products against individual customer orders. These are then moved into a customisation area, where they are prepared to specific customer requirements, prior to shipment.

In the bulk store, there are two single and eleven double runs of racking. It is designed to handle pallets 1200mm wide by 1000mm deep and a maximum height of 1300mm. Each run of racking consists of 22 bays, which have 2700mm clear entry. Pallets are stored on seven levels, with the top beam at 10.5 metres. Throughout the store the bottom bays are dedicated to order picking, with replenishment stock stored in the locations above. Reach trucks are used to manoeuvre pallets in the racking.

Site Operations Manager Paul Blackman commented “Redirack are prepared to work with us to develop the optimum layout to suit our applications. Their project team always performs excellently. Whenever we present them with a problem, they come up with the best solution.”