Member Article

Europa Wins Record Warehouse Contract

Europa Warehouse - a division of independent logistics operator, Europa Worldwide Group - has won a record contract worth £3.5 million for its Birmingham site.

Southgate Packaging is the UK’s leading supplier of innovative packaging equipment and consumables to packaging distributors, with 50 years’ experience in the sector. Following sustained and rapid sales growth, Southgate has outgrown its storage facilities adjacent to its head office in King’s Lynn, Norfolk. The decision was therefore concluded to relocate storage and distribution to a location more suited to ongoing growth, retaining the head office and other departments in Norfolk.

The 5 year deal has seen Southgate relocate operations to Europa’s 16,540m2 state-of-the-art facility in Minworth, Birmingham. Southgate made this decision to enable them to continue their growth through improvements in customer service levels, stockholding facilities and despatch capabilities.

Europa has implemented major changes to its Birmingham operation to accommodate its rapidly expanding business. Its warehouse and road transit area have been overhauled and restructured to provide Southgate with a dedicated, specialised space, tailored to fit its unique and specific requirements.

Europa has also employed 15 full-time staff to support the new contract, which includes warehouse, pick and pack, Sea Freight, European import and export road services. Initially Europa will handle 4,000 pallets per annum for Southgate, which will increase to 5,000 in the first three years of operation.

Southgate’s Commercial Director Charles McIntyre said: “Partnering with Europa has bolstered our storage and distribution capabilities and provides huge potential for growth, with the addition of Europa’s experience, over 40 loading docks and state-of-the-art automated warehouse management scanning systems. The new distribution centre is located in the heart of the UK logistics ‘Golden Triangle’ and will deliver almost 100 per cent order picking accuracy, which means we can offer customers an unparalleled buying experience and even higher levels of delivery performance.”

Richard Cronk, Director of Europa Warehouse, said: “It’s fantastic to be working with Southgate Packaging and to have their distribution centre at our Birmingham site. It’s a mark of our flexibility and responsiveness as a logistics solutions provider – if it can be done we will find a way to do it for our customers. Southgate is a big operation and our biggest warehouse contract yet for our Birmingham site. We had to provide an impressive, robust service that they could rely on as they grow their business even further. Together, we’ve created something that has huge future potential.”

Birmingham is one of four Europa Warehouse facilities including Northampton, Dartford and Glasgow, which provide in total over 42,000 m2 of dedicated warehousing and logistics space. Customers include market-leading trade sector brands as well as blue chip companies.

Europa Worldwide Group employs more than 500 people across 11 sites in the UK and Hong Kong and is represented in 100 countries. As well as its successful warehouse operation, Europa Worldwide Group also provides specialist air & sea, road and showfreight services.

www.europa-worldwide.com

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Kathryn Greenwood .