Active Ants, subsidiary of bpost , will open a fifth fullfilment centre this autumn. The newest branch is in Northampton, England. The layout will not differ much from Active Ants' other DCs.
Active Ants, founded in 2010, already expanded into Belgium and Germany in recent years. With the UK, the Dutch company aims to become a leading player in Europe. "Active Ants wants to be the best fulfilment company in Europe," says co-founder and managing Partner Jeroen Dekker. "We are delighted that entering the UK will further increase our presence in Europe and believe we are entering one of the most exciting online markets."
The basis of the new premises is the Autostore, the system where goods are stored in bins. On top of the AutoStore is a framework of rails, on which robots ride and bring the right bin to a picking station. Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) bring empty boxes to the employee, who fills them with goods delivered by the storage robots. "Storage, order picking, packing and sorting are also fully automated in this brand new fulfilment centre," Dekker states. ''For order picking, employees work efficiently together with robots. Receiving goods and the return flow remain manual processes. This mechanisation ensures efficiency, high quality and a pleasant working environment for our employees. The set-up is unique in the world."
Also in Northampton, Active Ants expects to make use of a specially developed carton sealer with built-in printer, allowing each of the company's customers to get their own custom printed box. Dekker: "Stocking pre-printed boxes is no longer necessary. This saves our customer costs and in turn reduces the footprint." Active Ants now serves 250 customers and processes over 5 million orders a year.
