Palletways has significantly increased its capacity at its central hub in Lichfield, Staffordshire, after taking on the former UK Pallets site on Fradley Distribution Park.
The pallet network has been conducting a pilot at the site, located 500m from its central hub, and has now gone fully operational with immediate effect.
MT understands that the two separate sites will effectively be managed as one facility via the network’s IT systems, with members directed to either Fradley 1 or Fradley 2 based on their ultimate destination.
The new location comes with 11,500m² of warehouse and sortation space, offices and parking for 300 trailers. Capable of handling 8,000 pallets per day, the facility is currently running at around 2,000 pallets per day.
Palletways’ main hub, Fradley 1, can handle 16,000 pallets a day meaning the new site represents a 50% boost in capacity. The network is also adding, cumulatively, 40% more capacity at its regional hubs in London, Oxford and Scotland.
Palletways, which has 12 central hubs servicing 20 European countries, also plans new facilities in Germany (Homberg), Southern France (Lyon and Montpelier) and Eastern Europe within the next months, as well as an extension of its network in the Nordic region.
Luis Zubialde, MD at Palletways UK, said: “This is an exciting time for our network as we continue to expand, reinforcing our market leadership, our reputation for service excellence and our pan-European capabilities in support our customers’ growth ambitions.
“Our growth into new markets has been supported by our significant and continuous investment in new infrastructure in the UK and abroad and the development of improved communications technology to extend the reach of the business and drive efficiency and performance.”
Zubialde added that the network’s European activity now represented 40% of the group’s overall volumes, which he claimed was more than the total UK and European volume of any other competitor in the UK.
Palletways said it handled an average of 33,000 pallets a day across the group last year, a 12% increase year-on-year. It is expecting to process more than 8 million pallets this year, with a daily average of 36,000 pallets rising to more than 40,000 during peak.
Palletways recently opened hubs in Bulgaria and Romania. It is currently rolling out its Digital Information Hub software to its locations on the Continent.
