Retailer The Range eliminates double handling
Fast growing retailer The Range has taken delivery of its 100th Flexi articulated forklift truck.
The truck will operate at one of The Range’s retail sites, which are located across the whole of the UK and Ireland, where it will be used to unload incoming vehicles in the yard and deliver palletised loads of replenishment stock directly to the very narrow aisle (VNA) pallet racking within the retail facility’s on-site stock room.
“The Range offers more than 65,000 products – from homeware and furniture to DIY and art supplies – and the large choice of products on sale means that every square metre is precious, so back-up stock has to be stored in the most space-efficient way possible,” says John Maguire, commercial director of Narrow Aisle.
By unloading incoming vehicles and delivering loads directly to the VNA store, the Flexi trucks used by The Range – which are fitted with ‘elastic’ rubber treaded tyres -eliminate ‘double handling’ and, as a result, materials handling fleet operating costs are minimised as only one lift truck is required at each store.
The Range’s strategy of operating a single Flexi lift truck for all significant incoming goods deliveries at its busy stores means that a high degree of reliability is essential: clearly any truck downtime could have serious repercussions for the availability of key product lines on the shelves of the store which would not be tolerated.
“Flexis have built a long-term reputation for dependability and reliability and the trucks’ proven uptime across the national fleet at each branch of The Range where they are in operation means that the client has complete confidence about its single truck per location strategy,” says John Maguire.
“Also,” he adds, “because the Flexi truck is very easy to drive and the store only needs to have operators trained to use one type of truck – the Flexi.”
