With a focus on wholesome food, local connectivity, respect for the environment, a nice place to work and dedication to the community, SPAR is always looking for the right balance within their business, regional partners and suppliers.
Since April 2016 SPAR Handels AG belongs 60% to SPAR South Africa. The headquarters and central warehouse are located in St. Gallen, Switzerland, operating 50 milkruns a day to about 350 stores with their own truck fleet. Like other members of the SPAR Group, SPAR Swiss uses simple “demountable” roll containers for their deliveries. To optimize their logistics, SPAR runs a warehouse with a conveyor solution. This system was purpose-built for the existing demountable fleet.
The biggest problems for all retailers with these kind of roll containers are space and handling issues. Empty units need lots of space in shops while they wait to be picked up. Therefore, SPAR started a project in 2016 to rethink their transport management with foldable roll container. After presenting our Foldia® solution to the logistic responsibles Mr. Huber and Mr. Tomas, Foldia® with all its advantages convinced them totally.
“We have considered the process and looked at where we have potential in using the Foldia roll container. At the beginning we only thought about the transport, but it affects several areas of the supply chain such as
– Space saving in the markets
– Higher backhauling capacity on the transport
– Less additional pickups for empties
– Space saving and faster handling when unloading
We are calculating with around 4 roll container higher backhauling capacity per truck load.” mentioned Jürgen Tomas, Head of Logistic Service.
Together with K.Hartwall in 2017 SPAR decided to go further with the Foldia® solution. We started immediately modifying the product to integrate with their conveyor system and SPAR invested also, together with the conveyor system supplier, in some modifications on parts of the system. That was a challenge but our great Product Development guys solve this problem very fast. We refitted two “space bars” on the Foldia® base allowing the unit to be tilted, especially in gaps between the chain and belt conveyor lines. For transporting empty units we refitted “lock bolts” to fix the plastic base on the Foldia®. After successful testing with a first batch of 1,000 units, we secured a further order for further 3,600 Foldia®, with the target to replace the whole fleet of demountable roll containers in 2019.
We are happy now to roll out further projects with this nice expertise in Switzerland!
