Creative kitchenware specialist Lakeland – one of the UK’s home shopping pioneers – operates a fleet of some 60 forklift trucks within its Kendall distribution centre. At peak periods trucks from Jungheinrich’s short term rental fleet are brought in to help cope with demand
Founded in the early 1960s, Lakeland remains a family-owned business and today has over 4,000 kitchen and home solutions in its range which it sells through its popular print-catalogue, from its website and from some 59 stores from Aberdeen to Truro.
The company has a distribution centre in Kendal, Cumbria, from where its online and catalogue driven orders are fulfilled and replenishment stock for Lakeland’s high street retail outlets is picked and despatched. The company operates a fleet of some 60 forklift trucks within the Kendal site – the overwhelming majority of which are supplied by Jungheinrich UK.
At peak periods Jungheinrich’s short term rental trucks are brought in to help cope with demand. The short term rental fleet is now in excess of 2,000 units and includes models from Jungheinrich’s full range of warehouse and counterbalanced trucks. Trucks are available for next day delivery anywhere in the UK and are supplied and maintained from one of Jungheinrich’s six regional rental locations.
The average age of the trucks within the Jungheinrich fleet is just two and half years, which means Lakeland have the peace of mind that comes with the knowledge that their short term rental forklifts are state of the art machines that have been maintained to the highest standards.
“We have a young fleet and, if anything does go wrong, some 500 nationwide service engineers are there to ensure that downtime is minimal,” says Neil Warren, Jungheinrich’s Used Equipment and Short Term Rental director.
A Jungheinrich service engineer is permanently on site at Lakeland’s Kendal distribution centre to ensure that truck downtime is minimised.
Lakeland’s distribution operations coordinator, John Bunker, says: “The Jungheinrich service engineers we have worked with are a special breed. They’re a credit to their company and have always provided the very highest levels of after sales care. All trucks develop faults from time to time but the dedication and expertise of the Jungheinrich staff mean that we are rarely troubled by down-time issues.”
Lakeland sources products from around the world and incoming trailer loads of goods are unloaded using electric-powered Jungheinrich counterbalanced trucks.
Jungheinrich reach trucks are employed to deliver full pallet loads into the bulk store and to drop pallets to the ground and first tier level for order picking as required. The reach trucks are Jungheinrich ETV 320 models with a 2-tonne capacity.
A significant influence on Lakeland’s decision to specify these models was the fact that the trucks feature Jungheinrich’s patented mast dampening system. When working at height, truck masts sway and, for obvious safety reasons, truck operators have to wait for the swaying to stop before attempting to deliver the pallet into the racking. Jungheinrich’s mast damping system minimises elevated fork (laden or unladen) swaying time.
It was calculated that, when lifting to the highest racking beam level at Lakeland, the Jungheinrich damping system saved valuable seconds per lift when compared to alternative makes of reach truck.
Lakeland were also impressed by the trucks’ state-of-the-art AC technology which, importantly, ensures that running costs are kept to a minimum.
The trucks’ regenerative braking and regenerative mast lowering features reduce energy usage – and therefore truck running costs – significantly by reclaiming excess energy and using it to charge the battery every time operators brake or lower the forks.
Around 25 per cent of the energy needed during a typical shift is reclaimed in this way – meaning every fourth lift is energy free.
In addition to the reach and counterbalance trucks, 25 Jungheinrich Low Level Order Pickers are in operation at the facility.
“Because our Kendal site is the hub from where our stores are replenished and our catalogue and online orders are fulfilled, we rely on efficient materials handling equipment. The reliability of the Jungheinrich products is a major factor in our ability to operate a highly efficient supply chain which is fundamental to the ongoing success of our business,” adds John Bunker.
Jungheinrich
T: 0800 357 457
