Logistics platform for fresh and frozen food products distribution

Grupo Uvesco (Supermercados BM and Super Amara) owns 236 supermarkets and has a workforce of 5,400 employees. Uvesco is characterised by its support to local suppliers to offer customers proximity goods. A quality-based model of supermarket offering a wide range, specialised attention and local produce.

Need

In its goal to be a supermarket model with high-quality products, Uvesco wanted to create a logistics distribution centre specifically for fresh and frozen products as 60% of its logistics capacity is dedicated to this type of product.

With this project – the Group’s largest investment to date – Uvesco continues to guarantee quality for its customers, in meat, cold cuts, fish, fruit, vegetables and frozen products. And also it unifies and centralises in a single platform all management previously carried out from another three distribution platforms in Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Cantabria.

This plant, with a surface of 21,000 m², will provide comprehensive management of fresh and frozen product logistics for the 143 BM supermarkets. Its strategic location in the Cantabrian town of Castro Urdiales, eases the supply to supermarkets of the north zone. This platform also services all BM orders online.

This platform represents an improvement of the handling and transportation logistics, and a consolidation of a logistic infrastructure that will allow Uvesco to continue growing and opening more stores. This plant is expected to dispatch 120 tonnes of fresh produce per day, a figure the Group aims to double in the future.

Solution

Both, the new platform and the trucks that distribute to the supermarkets are at a controlled temperature at all times, to guarantee that the cold chain is not broken at any stage.

The platform is divided into five foods storage areas: meat, fish, fruit&veg, a multipurpose zone and frozen foods. With one consolidation room to prepare orders for the stores, the platform is completed with 35 loading bays for truck loading and unloading, in addition to one office space.

The new facilities incorporate the latest technologies of the sector:

• Order preparation by radiofrequency and voice picking, where the operator receives from the computer system through a headset instructions regarding the order, items, quantities, etc.
• Ergonomic handling equipment adjusted to each operator’s constitution and complexion to improve comfort during their tasks.
• Energy-efficient refrigeration and insulation components in all sections.
• Application of a recovery system for the residual energy of the cooling installation to be reused in the building A/C.

Technical data sheet

• Storage of food, principally fresh and frozen.
• Logistic platform with a surface of 21,000 m².
• 4 controlled temperature warehouses + 1 freezer warehouse (-25ºC).
• Adjustable pallet racking for storage of 800 x 1,200 mm pallets with a maximum load of 1,000 kg per pallet.
• Total capacity: 7,249 pallets.