The scale of the Pets At Home distribution operation reflects the position the company has achieved in its sector in this country - and now, with the opening of its first store in Australia, even overseas.  The 350,000 sq. ft. premises, which was created two years ago to rationalise their distribution operation, now benefits from extensive use of ASG Services' labelling and signs which are central to the organisation's overall efficiency.

Distributing to some 157 stores nation-wide in 65 vehicles leaving the site each day, the storage facility is divided into bulk areas and picking zones.  Alongside extensive pallet racking, it features a two-tier, fully automated mezzanine through which a powered conveyer operates to transport the 40,000 tote bins that are used at the site - primarily to hold smaller items broken down from larger loads.  The racking provides five beam levels for pallet location with each assigned a specific colour code that is used on the ASG Services' pallet location labels.  These are reproduced at ground level allowing the truck operators to scan from below as products are located or removed at any level.

Apart from its colour coding, each label features an alpha-numeric identity and a corresponding bar-code which interfaces directly with the Swiss-Log computerised warehouse management system.  Because the labels are laser printed high definition and outstanding verification rates are achieved, while a protective laminate helps to maximise lifespan.

'The accuracy of the labeling procedures and the confidence we have in them  retaining usable quality over a long period of time is central to the smooth running of the facility,' comments Ann Runcie, General Manager. 

'We hold some 4500 lines in stock and move no less than 2600 pallet each day and 23 million cases per year to keep stock levels to the optimum level.  Whether stored in the bulk storage area or broken down for picking - often via the totes - and then onward collation into 12 sortation lanes for despatch, tracking every product via bar-code label is clearly a major task and key requirement,' she explains. 

The involvement, therefore, of ASG Services and the company's willingness to work with us to identify the optimum procedures and materials,' she concludes, 'has been critical to the success that we have achieved.'