One of our biggest orders in 2003 was to supply racking and mezzanine flooring for a new high bay warehouse and distribution facility to be used by the Kellogg's Company, the world's leading producer of cereal and a leading manufacturer of convenience foods such as cereal bars, frozen waffles, toaster pastries, cookies and crackers. The new 35,000 square metre distribution centre is located close to Kellogg's existing Trafford Park manufacturing plant, the largest cereal factory in the world.

Consolidate warehousing

The new warehouse, christened KW1, was built as part of a plan to consolidate Kellogg's warehousing and to establish a flexible, efficient and responsive distribution operation. Kellogg's two sites are operated by Exel, its sole supplier of external primary warehousing, on mainland UK, for ready to eat cereals delivered directly from the factory.

Everything under one roof

Mark Hamilton is Kellogg's Project Manager and worked extensively on the new development. "As a business, Kellogg's responds to consumer preferences. We required a distribution infrastructure that could address the varying needs of our customers." He explains. "AKW1 gives us this ability. With everything under one roof, we can react quickly to customer demand."

24 hours a day 7 days a week

KW1 is a fourteen-metre high building, set on a seventeen-acre site. It has twenty-two loading bays with dock levellers, two ground level bays and four automatic intake bays. It can store up to 32,000 pallets and serves Kellogg's customers throughout the UK and Ireland. KW1 operates twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week.

Flexibility and efficiency

Commenting on the layout of the racking, Mark says. "Even though KW1 is a 24/7 operation, there are still peaks and troughs. We felt that a manual operation, would provide greater flexibility and efficiency than a fully automated storage and retrieval system. Double deep racking gives us best use of the available space."

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