Business

Clays has enhanced its "beyond print" offering to book publishers with the official opening of its new £6m automated warehouse facility.

The Bungay-based St Ives subsidiary unveiled the facility to a delegation of key customers last week, including HarperCollins, Canongate, BCA, Penguin, Quercus, Icon and Little, Brown.

The secure warehouse comprises 5,000 high-bay pallet spaces in racking that is 22m high and 50m long.

Robotic cranes move the pallets in and out of the racking without human intervention, under instruction from a sophisticated warehouse management system that has been totally integrated with Clays' bespoke MIS and capacity planning system.

This allows customers to make decisions about the supply of stock, for example for sales-based replenishment, much later in the process and, in some cases, bypassing the need to take books to and from book distribution warehouses altogether.

"Our main warehouse is in Glasgow so this is appealing to us for deliveries to the south of England," said HarperCollins production director Graham Cook.

St Ives chief executive Patrick Martell said guaranteeing the supply chain removed the need for booksellers to hold stock: "The warehouse is part of the overall service of providing lower cost, not just lower price."

The site typically despatches 16 lorries a day, although this can increase to 25 during busy periods.

"We've taken lorries out of Bungay altogether and that was a strong part of the non-financial justification. I'm so pleased for the town," said Clays managing director Kate McFarlan.