Construction of a £5 million raw-materials warehouse with 4,000 pallet spaces is underway at Fuchs Lubricants’ base in Staffordshire.
The warehouse, in Stoke-on-Trent, is the latest step in a £10 million investment programme by Fuchs UK (
www.fuchs.com/uk), which has also seen the introduction of a range of innovative manufacturing plant and a new pallet-loading robot.
The fully automated high-bay warehouse — due for completion in the second quarter of 2020 — will allow an existing building to become a specialist packaging warehouse.
Mark Gray, Fuchs UK’s head of operations, said: “We have an ambition to place Fuchs Lubricants at the forefront of R&D, manufacturing and distribution of lubricants in the UK.
“This raw-materials warehouse represents a significant investment for the business, and a further step towards that goal.
"It includes sophisticated automation, which will future-proof the business and create cost-saving benefits.”
Two driverless wire-guided Very Narrow Aisle trucks will operate in the warehouse, offering high travel and lift speeds without operator intervention.
High-tech warehouse control and management systems streamline the process, with benefits including goods receipt entry and booking, a paperless put-away process, inventory support and batch traceability.