From Hammarsdale to shelf
>> Logistics and technology infrastructure and systems
>> Innovation
>> Intellectual property
>> Retail and supply chain experience
>> Efficient processes
>> Synergies across brands and businesses
>> Product availability and convenience
>> Best price leadership
>> Supply chain management
>> Resource management
Moving stock quickly and efficiently is of the utmost importance to our business. The Hammarsdale distribution centre (DC) has optimised the picking and packing of products across seven clothing and footwear brands, thereby increasing efficiencies.
Sharing 90 000 m2 of space, Ackermans and all our Speciality brands’ logistics have been consolidated into one DC
in Hammarsdale. The facility was purposely designed and built to cater for the brands’ specific needs to maximise
efficiencies. The blueprint and workflow allow our pickers to process more than double the number of stock
keeping units they did in the old facilities, and with more accuracy.
The journey of each product is planned and managed by a sophisticated IT infrastructure that manages the supply
chain journey of each product from the supplier to the customer. Products are picked per individual store order and
packed into boxes by each brand’s picking staff, using (mostly) audio technology.
Once the boxes are packed and labelled with a barcode containing information about the content and the journey,
it enters the logistics system for distribution
Ackermans created 250 direct new permanent employment opportunities in the community. On average, 450 000 units are picked and packed for store distribution per day.
By moving to Hammarsdale, Speciality increased their warehouse space by 68% from 14 500 m2 to 25 000 m2.
This increase in footprint allows for flexibility and capacity from 5 500 pallet racking to 16 500 pallets.
