New battery system sparks £250,000 saving for budget warehouse
1 min read
When budget retailer 99p Stores decided to move to a larger warehouse and distribution centre, it had to keep a tight rein on its material handling costs. Battery and charger technology from Hoppecke is enabling the business to make major cost savings over its five-year fleet arrangement – the budget store reckons it will save £250,000 in electricity costs over the period.
Operations director Hussein Lalani said: "At around 37,000 square metres, our new warehouse in Northampton is more than twice the size of old facility. However, we needed to avoid doubling our handling costs when it came to moving products on and off the site."
The company was introduced to Hoppecke and the battery specialist identified several issues that needed to be addressed if 99p Stores was to achieve its aim of improving efficiency while increasing the scale of its operations.
Hoppecke's sales director Gus Whyte explained: "We installed a new Trak Air charger system, capable of charging 32 batteries at any one time and incorporating a 'call forward' function that signals to operators which battery is to be used next." The high frequency charger is around 30% more energy efficient than traditional systems. Hoppecke has also supplied 82 of its Trak Air batteries.
Continued Hussein: "The complete system was only installed in May 2010 but we are already on target to save around £50,000 this year. Over the length of the contract we expect to save around £250,000 in electricity costs alone.
"On top of this further savings will be made through reduced wear and tear on our trucks, reductions in downtime and the fact we will no longer need to bring in extra trucks to cope with peaks in demand," he added.
Pictured, left to right: Gerry Laughran, operations director, 99p Stores; Gus Whyte, Hoppecke's sales director; and Dipak Desia, facilities manager for 99p Stores
