Welcome to the March 15th edition of Warehouse & Logistics News. It’s officially springtime now, but this last winter certainly didn’t want to leave quietly. As we went to press much of Britain was still recovering from being blasted by the Beast from The East and Storm Emma, followed by the Pest from the West a few days later.

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As well as being famous for battling the elements and minimising the cost of business interruption from bad weather, the UK’s warehousing and logistics industry is world renowned for its high quality standards and commitment to excellence. The same goes for the warehouse storage equipment suppliers. On our front page the SEMA Approved Installation Companies (SAICs) have now followed the SEMA Distributor Companies in offering up their businesses to an in-depth quality audit, to inject further rigour into SEMA’s group membership criteria.

One side effect of a very strong warehouse and logistics industry is the ongoing shortage of warehouse space, a recurring theme in our pages. A popular solution is high quality temporary premises, as Rubb Buildings’ specialist warehouse Sales Executive Steph Cole explains in our interview. Incidentally, if you’re thinking of using temporary structures for extended periods, Rubb guarantee their PVC coverings for 10 years and their steel frameworks for 25 years.

There’s more about buildings in our Buildings feature. We hear from Kestrel Industrial Services, who offer high volume/high velocity air barriers and high volume/low speed fans to boost existing heating and cooling systems’ performance and keep temperatures conditions consistent. On the marketing front, Aganto, another temporary structures supplier, have gone back to basics by putting out what they call an ‘old school’ printed customer newsletter alongside their digital activities.

The prospect of a shrinking UK workforce post-Brexit is driving many ecommerce businesses to do more to automate their operations. In our Conveyors feature Asda has doubled the order throughput of its George.com homeware merchandise with an automated packing and dispatch solution from Axiom, at supply chain partner Clipper Logistics’ Nottinghamshire facility. On the new equipment front Interroll is expanding its portfolio to include a pallet conveyor handling pallet weights of up to 1,250 kg.

In our Doors feature, why not brighten your loading bays and cheer up your staff this spring with Stertil’s bespoke coloured curtains for dock shelters? In other Doors news Ebrofrost UK, the pasta manufacturer has improved its health and safety capabilities and prepared for increased dispatches and deliveries with a new Thorworld loading bay at its Beckley, East Sussex site. Also in this feature, Dock Solutions is enhancing its reputation for unconventional loading bay solutions by providing a customer with a loading ramp with a 27- tonne capacity, a traffic light safety system, pedestrian access steps and yellow painted hand rails.

And finally, multi-temperature logistics and distribution specialist Oakland International has confirmed Robert Hardy as its new Commercial Director. Robert shares his name with the late actor who played Winston Churchill nine times. We wonder whether this Mr Hardy also likes making stirring speeches, in his case to Oakland’s workforce. Perhaps he might say, we shall deliver on the roads and we shall deliver on the motorways. We shall never surrender to the congestion!

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