Adjustable pallet racking for the growth and specialisation of VICSA

The personal protective equipment wholesaler VICSA entrusted the industrial storage specialist AR Racking with optimising its warehouse in Santiago to meet the growth expectations of the business.

The project carried out by AR Racking at this new distribution centre is characterised by the adaptation of the storage solution to VICSA’s diverse product range. “considering the volume of products and stock rotation rate according to its sales channel, we decided to equip the warehouse with adjustable pallet racking for the more voluminous and heavy loads, and also incorporate 2 picking levels on the lower levels for products stored in cartons”, commented Germán Flores Miranda, Managing Director of AR Racking in Chile.

The solution installed by AR Racking for VICSA is a storage system for pallets, a very versatile system due to the possibilities it offers for adapting to any type of unit load as shown by the integration of lower levels used to store cartons. It also allows direct and immediate access, which speeds up warehouse operations notably. The installed racks, with a height of 7,000 mm, exploit the available space at height and have generated an overall storage capacity for 2,300 positions.

As Luis Castillo Vásquez, Logistics and IT Manager, explained, “this installation allows us to cope with current growth and future forecasts and also separate specialised operations in non-traditional channels, such as e-commerce and retail”. In Chile, VICSA quickly reached after its launch 100% market coverage in Chile and in recent years has experienced “continuous growth at good levels of around 20% per year”.

Hence the need for a new warehouse and to improve the efficiency of its operations. “We chose AR Racking because it is an internationally supported company and we knew that it would respond very quickly, in line with our needs, which is key in the world of logistics operations. In addition, the quality standard of the racking met our requirements”, added Castillo.

VICSA began its commercial activity in 2001, to meet trade demand for personal protective equipment (PPE), specifically retail chains, associated and independent hardware stores and specialist distributors in the field. Since 2004 its success has gradually led it to opening subsidiaries in several countries in South America: Lima (Peru), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Bogota (Colombia), Monterrey (Mexico), Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Montevideo (Uruguay). In 2012, the British holding BUNZL acquired full ownership of VICSA.