Fully Automated Warehouse Debut for Fruits and Vegetables
Finnish Retailer SOK Relies on IFCO Reusable Plastic Crates
A unique logistics center belonging to SOK Corporation near Helsinki showcases as one of the world's first fully automated warehouse for fresh produce. In this system, SOK counts on reusable plastic containers (RPCs) by IFCO, the leading global provider of RPCs for fresh foods. In the fully automated system, IFCO RPCs show their true strengths.
Getting fresh fruit and vegetables from grower to grocer is a race against time. Often, only hours may pass between produce arriving at the distribution center and leaving again on its way to consumers. To make delivery fast, efficient, and cost-effective, Finland's largest retailer, SOK, opened a fully automated warehouse near Helsinki in mid-2017. Half of all of the groceries sold in the country go through this warehouse. To carry produce, SOK relies on RPCs from IFCO since they perfectly meet the requirements of automated systems.
The capacity of the automated warehouse now exceeds 1.2 million units per day and some 21,000 different articles shuttle through the system. Each month, more than a million IFCO RPCs carry 70 percent of all fresh produce and bread products through the warehouse. By mid-2019, Inex Oy, SOK's logistics subsidiary, plans to ship most of the fruit and vegetables with RPCs, reaching a volume of 15 to 16 million RPCs per year.
RPC strengths: moisture-resistant, stackable, sturdy
"The customer wanted to avoid the tilting of crates in particular," explains IFCO CEO Wolfgang Orgeldinger. "It was clear to them from the start that they need a high percentage of RPCs."
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