16 | Cardinal Logistics: Waterloo Business Park REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Karen Phelps ‘Warehousing of the future’ arrives Cardinal will be incorporating the latest technology in its new Christchurch facility. ARE YOU PAYING TOO MUCH FOR YOUR END OF LINE PACKAGING? Automate your end of line packaging using Signode’s pre-designed packaging stations. 29 Verissimo Drive, Mangere Auckland NZ 2022 | Phone: 0800 744 663 | Email: sales@signode.co.nz | www.signode.co.nz SIGNODE AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND Manufacture load containment & protective packaging systems that have been engineered specifically for your application; systems that protect your products, streamline your production and improve your profits. THAT MEANS THAT SIGNODE: • Provide customers with the correct packaging materials to secure their products. • Design and build the special application equipment to apply these materials safely, efficiently and effectively. • Support all of the product applications with direct sales, technical and engineering resources, operator training, field maintenance and repair services. WE ARE SOCIAL The expansion of Cardinal Christchurch is mirroring growth in its Auckland operations. The Christchurch Cardinal facility in Waterloo Business Park offers a warehouse with space for 25,000 racked pallets plus a 3000sqm container yard and forms a key part of the company’s national network, says Cardinal chief executive officer Brendon Furness. “As we’ve grown we’ve needed to double the size of our operation in Christchurch to allow us to take care of significant customer partnerships,” explains Brendon. The third party logistics provider focuses on national FMCG and retail logistics contracts, taking care of clients’ needs nationwide from collecting product from ports, bringing containers to its warehouses for devanning and storage then delivering orders to the required destination. Covid-19 has accelerated Cardinal’s growth as FMCG and retail clients experienced a boom and also needed to hold more stock than normal to offset supply chain issues. Customers include Griffin’s, Unilever, Kimberly Clark, Asahi, Cadbury, Red Bull and Sealord. Further growth for Cardinal’s Christchurch operation is forecast as the company has just opened a new operation in East Tamaki, Auckland. Brendon says this has allowed Cardinal to fully fill its Christchurch warehouse and it is actively looking for a new site to further expand its footprint in Christchurch. The East Tamaki facility is located in Smales Road and takes Cardinal’s total pallet holding to 175,000 pallets. The site boasts a 10,000sqm area, holding 16,000 pallets. “It is a specialist site for full pallet movements and will house a number of our retail customers who require transfers back to their own plants or large DCs,” explains Brendon. Cardinal is moving into the latest technology in a new facility underway in Drury and which will also be applied to the new facility it is looking to build in Christchurch. The Drury operation is a massive 60,000-pallet warehouse and will incorporate an ASRS - automated storage and retrieval system. “This is new technology for New Zealand on this sort of scale,” says Brendon. “It’s very much the warehousing of the future and we are bringing it to New Zealand.” Rather than manual labour being used to undertake warehouse movements, the ASRS will utilise cranes and robots in a sophisticated system. A unique aspect will be a carton buffering system capable of holding 40,000 “This is new technology for New Zealand on this sort of scale. It’s very much the warehousing of the future and we are bringing it to New Zealand.” cartons. Called ‘goods to person’, a series of conveyor belts will take individual cartons to the person packing them as opposed to people operating forklifts to pick cartons to build a pallet. The system will be able to handle up to 400 cartons per hour compared with 120, which is the typical rate by manual labour. It will be solar powered meaning energy efficiency and a lower carbon footprint. Other benefits include increased accuracy, less reliance on manual labour with industry wide labour shortages and health and safety advantages. “Carton buffering is really exciting,” says Brendon. “Due to our smaller store model in New Zealand, for example service stations, small supermarkets, dairies etc, there are a lot of small carton pick orders rather than big full pallets. Our high propensity of carton pick orders relative to other countries around the globe will make carton buffering particularly advantageous.” Cardinal was started in 1992 by Tony Gorton with a view to doing things differently. It now boasts an expansive network throughout New Zealand and a team of over 500 dedicated staff. Brendon says the company’s great customers have given it the platform to invest in automated warehouses of the future. “Maintaining the right portfolio of yard, warehouse and freight space for our customers, underpins our infrastructure investment decisions. “You need big scale to build facilities such as in Drury so while these are common globally they are not common in New Zealand. Through cutting-edge technology, purpose-built infrastructure, and a commitment to our clients’ success we aim to support them to do business confidently. “We will continue to focus on customer service, establishing deep partnerships and trying to get better every day.”
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