NL: Dillewijn Zwapak to build new warehouse

The three current properties, all in the same neighborhood but separated by a few hundred meters, will be diverted. These buildings have since long outlived their practicality: they are simply outdated. They were build in stages and are not adjusted to modern automation and engineering. "The new building will be equipped with the most modern automation techniques. For the most part it will operate fully automated, which means that we will be able to profit, both in terms of logistics and labor."

Inevitably jobs will be lost. Particularly in bulk, almost no manual labor will be needed anymore. Smaller items and orders will be handled semi-automatically. That is, with the right technical means, one and the same man can handle many more order lines in a much shorter time. In a corner of the warehouse, so-called paternoster closets are placed for the really small items. Especially supplying florists, who tend to like variety but typically order in small quantities, will profit from these refinements, Age Siebbeles adds.

With these new techniques, someone who processed 70 orders per hour now can do 250. "In short: with the opening of the warehouse we will go from 40 FTE on logistics to 20."

The warehouse will be 4 x 2,500 m2 in size and 14 meters high. Mid-September building will start (now there still is an old greenhouse, which will be demolished in the next few weeks). As of April 1 next year, the facility will be put into service and, as per June 1, staff will be transferred as well. On the roof solar panels will be installed, which will make the company fully self-sufficient in terms of energy supply.