Spar Austria has opened a new facility, dubbed ‘Europe’s most modern logistics centre’.
€85m project
Spar Austria’s existing logistics centre in St Polten, to the west of Vienna, was unable to meet the growing demands of the capital’s Spar stores, so the retailer embarked on a two year journey to build a replacement. The new facility, which cost €85m, is in Ebergassing, south-east of Vienna and has been named by the retailer as ‘Europe’s most modern logistics centre’.
Developing new technology
Working with logistics provider, Knapp, Spar developed a new method of picking, which improved peak management and gave employees a more ergonomic working environment. The two companies cited their specially developed workspaces and using ‘swarm intelligence’ when developing freely navigating shuttles as innovations they were particularly proud of.
Investing in innovation
Friedrich Poppmeier, member of Spar Austria’s Board and in charge of logistics commented: “To achieve local supply at the highest level, perfect processes have to be applied. SPAR is a leader in innovation and has always invested in new technologies in the area of logistics. Innovation supporting the security of supply and the support of our SPAR retailers in their day-to-day work is an ongoing investment within SPAR Austria. The SPAR logistics centre Ebergassing has become a model operation!”
Missed something? Every week we publish the key news stories from the international FMCG supply chain. In our retailer channel update, we look specifically at what we’ve seen from retailers in the first half of 2016.
