Tibbett & Britten Times #25 - Hayes Anderson Limited

8 UK news
Tibbett & Britten Times Spring 2002
Sainsbury’s builds giant
‘fulfilment factory’
Major UK supermarket retailer J Sainsbury has appointed
Tibbett & Britten to operate its giant new regional distribution
centre at Hams Hall, on the edge of Birmingham in the West
Midlands. With a footprint of 65,000 sq m (700,000 sq ft)
and an additional 14,400 sq m (155,000 sq ft) of
mezzanines, this will be the largest distribution centre
managed by the Group in the UK.
The first of a new generation of ‘fulfilment factories’ within Sainsbury's UK supply chain, the
Hams Hall centre will handle the storage, picking and despatch of ambient and chilled food,
drink and fresh produce. It will serve 73 superstores and up to 100 smaller convenience
stores across the English Midlands. The new warehouse will be highly automated, with a
large sortation system, a total of 2 1 /4 miles (3.6 km) of pick-to-belt walkway, and 162 loading
bays. Throughput capacity will be up to 2.8 million cases a week.
Martin Graham, Managing Director of Tibbett & Britten UK and Ireland, commented: “We
are delighted at winning this important contract, and at the further strengthening of our
19-year partnership with Sainsbury’s. Hams Hall will be a sophisticated facility, with systems
that have never before been used with these volume levels or this degree of integration.”
The new Sainsbury’s ‘fulfilment factory’ is being constructed within the 22 ha (55 acre)
Hams Hall National Distribution Park, just 12 miles (19 km) from the centre of
Birmingham, Britain’s second-largest city.
Falling temperatures at South East Centre
In an extensive redevelopment programme, Sainsbury’s Allington distribution centre
near Maidstone, Kent, has switched from ambient and chilled storage to fully chilled.
Deliveries are made from the 20,000 sq m (212,000 sq ft) Tibbett & Britten-operated
site to 74 Sainsbury’s stores across the South East of England. With a capacity of around
one million cases of chilled product weekly, Allington is not only the first singlecategory
distribution centre in the J Sainsbury network, but also the retailer’s largest
chilled product warehouse.
Green wind blows
at Langlands Park
Sainsbury’s distribution centre at Langlands Park, East Kilbride, Scotland, is partly
powered by ‘ecotricity’. Towering over the Tibbett & Britten-operated site is a 65m
(213 ft) high wind turbine, the first commercial, non-subsidised turbine of its type in the
UK. Built and operated by wind energy company Next Generation, the turbine supplies
around 30 per cent of the electricity required by Langlands Park, saving some 1,645
tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions and 19 tonnes of sulphur dioxide emissions a year.