The frozen-storage installation of Mooijer-Volendam is efficiently operated

About Mooijer-Volendam B.V.

From the Netherlands, this company makes its living as a wholesaler, offering a wide selection of seafood, smoked fish, as well as frozen fruits and vegetables.

It opened in 1988 when two brothers, Carlo and René Mooijer, took charge of their parents’ company, dedicated to the commercialisation of prawns and seafood. The new company prospered very quickly when it started producing peeled shrimp in 1996.

Considered one of the most important suppliers in the industry. Currently, the business controls its entire production chain, including fishing, factory production or storage, up to distribution through its own delivery vehicles. Its products are distributed all over Europe, mainly, Germany, Austria, Belgium and the United Kingdom.

Business is booming

From its founding, Mooijer-Volendam B.V. has kept on growing. For example, in 2003 it merged with Lou Snoek, a very popular frozen and smoked fish brand in the Netherlands. From then on, the product catalogue of this brand (which includes smoked mackerel, herring, sprat, salmon and eel) became part of Mooijer-Volendam B.V. A smoking chamber is located at this installation for products that need to undergo this process.

“In the last few years, we have expanded our installations in Volendam to fit all the products we distribute throughout Europe and to deal with increased sales,” explains René Mooijer, general manager at Mooijer-Volendam B.V.

The company is a long-standing partner of Mecalux through Toyota Material Handling, to equip the finished products warehouse located in the centre of Volendam with a storage system, that in the words of René Mooijer, “is robust and flexible.” Said chamber runs at a constant -25 ºC for the purposes of keeping the merchandise in good condition.

Density and direct access

The warehouse comprises eight back-to-back racks on Movirack mobile bases and two stationary units. All measure 10 m high and 27 m long and, together, provide a storage capacity for 4,349 pallets with a maximum weight of 1,000 kg.

By cutting back on the number of aisles, it can be classified as high-density storage. It makes the most of an entire surface area to offer the maximum storage capacity possible. Moreover, the Movirack racking is highly-suited to frozen-storage chambers like the one at Mooijer-Volendam B.V, through the more effective distribution of chilled air between more pallets.

The racks rest on the mobile bases that slide along laterally when the worker wishes to open an aisle. A remote radio control system is used to give orders to the racks. That is when direct access is possible to all the products stored in the aisle and pallets can be easily deposited and extracted.

“Picking is one our warehouse’s main activities,” adds René Mooijer. This warehouse has a built-in park option, which consists of being able to have more than one aisle open at a time in order to work in several aisles at the same time.

The ‘park’ feature is used, above all, to pick directly from the pallets located on the lower levels of the pallet racks. The advantage of this system is that reserve stock is deposited on upper levels, thus preventing any sort of operational interruption.

Operators insert the SKUs into the corresponding aisles and collect items that are included in each order, but directly from the pallets. Once finished, orders are sent to the consolidation area to be verified and, finally, distributed to its customers.

René Mooijer - General Manager of Mooijer-Volendam B.V. “Movirack pallet racking optimises our warehouse space purposing and gives us the storage capacity we need to supply our customers. And, the aisles are wide enough to work in and, more importantly, to pick from.”

Advantages for Mooijer-Volendam B.V.

• High storage capacity: this system on mobile storage bases gives optimum surface usage and thus creates a storage capacity for 4,349 pallets.
• Efficient service: operations are highly streamlined. Operators only need to order a work aisle open and place or collect the pallets and pick orders.
• Direct access to pallets: once a work aisle is spread open, it is easy to access all Mooijer-Volendam B.V.’s pallets.