SEC Storage has recently completed the design and installation of an adjustable pallet racking system with varying bay sizes and warehouse barriers for Welch’s Transport Ltd’s new Bedford depot.

Welch’s Transport is one of the leading haulage companies in the East of England, specialising in a range of transport solutions from general haulage and pallet delivery to the transportation of dangerous goods and abnormal loads. Having operated in the UK for over 80-years, they are well equipped to service clients of all sizes throughout the UK.

Following the acquisition of a 46,000 sq/ft bus depot based on the Cambridge Road Industrial Estate in Bedford, Welch’s Transport Ltd were in need of a storage solution that would help them to convert their facility into a fully operational warehouse.

SEC’s initial contact with the company came through a referral from one of its long-standing suppliers, and the subsequent discussions focused around the specific pallet profiles that they were looking to store in this new facility. A key benefit of the selected design solution was the set-up of wide aisles that would enable a quick move in and also require no change to their existing forklift truck fleet. SEC has designed the solution so that as capacity requirements increase, it will be a simple task to infill with more racking, implementing a change to an articulated forklift configuration, removing the need for any disruptive warehouse reconfiguration in the future.

Chris Welch, Commercial & Operations Director commented, “SEC were brilliant to work with from start to finish. They gave us, by far, the most thorough survey we have had of our warehouse and paid particular attention to my comments about pallet profiles and varying bay sizes.

“The cherry on top was that they gave us an installation date of only six weeks after order, beating the competition by a good four weeks.

“The installation team were professional, cleaned up after themselves and had the job done within the agreed timeframes. All in all, an excellent service, and SEC will be the first company I call when we rack out our next warehouse”.

Ingenious Space Utilisation

The installation at Welch’s Transport highlights a very topical issue in the industry regarding the perceived lack of warehouses in the UK. Where many may feel that we are running out of space, at SEC this is seen as more an issue of the under-utilisation of existing space, both in terms of maximising the cube within current facilities as well as looking at ingenious options to convert existing buildings to provide efficient warehouse storage.

Welch’s Transport is a great example of the latter where intelligent design brings about maximisation of the existing space and also ensures future expansion, all without the need to find new land which, particularly in the south of England, is hard to come by.

Harry Watts, SEC Storage’s Commercial Director commented, “In the UK we vastly under-utilise the space that we have at our disposal. It’s time that our first thoughts around warehousing space is not ‘Let’s build some more’, but rather ‘how can we optimise the space that we have?’ It’s a more cost effective, more agile and hugely more sustainable approach, something that we have achieved for Welch’s Transport”. The Storage Equipment Centre Ltd (“SEC Storage”) understands that warehouses now play a pivotal role in the logistics industry and are a key component of a company’s competitive advantage, enabling organisations to offer outstanding customer service by servitising the products it sells.

Through a combination of operational analysis, simulation capabilities and industry experience, SEC Storage has created award-winning solutions for a broad range of clients throughout the UK.

Sec Storage

w: www.sec-storage.co.uk

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