Eroski logistics platform inaugurated at Mercapalma

The new platform has an area of 10,207 square metres, is totally refrigerated and specialises in the distribution of fresh products, incorporating a pioneering system for picking fruit and vegetable orders.

The new installations, where 110 people work, enable management of an average of 54,000 crates a day to supply the co-op’s 200 establishments in the Balearics.

According to Alfredo Herráez, Eroski’s Director in the Balearics, “this platform substantially improves the efficacy of our logistics processes to provide greater quality and cheaper fresh products due to the time reduction between production and product availability for the supermarket customer.”

The new platform replaces the 5 smaller installations Eroski previously managed on the island, whose move to the new installations was done progressively.

Among the most advanced solutions incorporated in this new platform, automation of fruit and vegetable order picking stands out, since its peak capacity enables 54,000 crates to be handled per day.

It is an innovative process designed and developed by ULMA for Eroski.

Among its main benefits, fresh produce handling stands out, since it improves productivity, reduces errors, standardises the service and guarantees hygiene and total assurance of fruit and vegetable traceability from origin to consumption.

Furthermore, it substantially improves the employment conditions of the employees, since it eliminates the physical effort required for manual order picking where preparers handled a daily load of around 7,000 kilos.

Inauguration of this platform follows on from the opening of Eroski’s Zaragoza platform in 2013, which also has innovative automation for fruit and vegetable order picking. Also, the second half of this year will see the completion of the food logistics platform enlargement and modernisation in Elorrio (Bizkaia), automating 50% of its traffic distribution.