Croxley opens 16,500sqm distribution centre

Croxley Stationery opens 16,500sqm distribution centre
New Zealand stationery manufacturer Croxley has announced the opening of its new custom built distribution centre in Wiri, South Auckland.

At 16,500sqm (175,000sqft) the distribution centre consolidates a number of Croxley’s storage sites into a state of the art facility, the largest stationery warehouse in New Zealand.

Croxley commenced this project in 2005 working with Southpark Corporation to lease the land and designing and building a tailor made facility.

Construction by Euroclass began in February and was completed in early October.

Croxley Managing Director Joe Naus says the company anticipated the requirement several years ago and that the investment was crucial for future growth.

“We have outgrown existing facilities. This consolidation improves logistics and distribution from which we anticipate economic savings across freight, travel and control.”

The distribution centre has capacity for 13,000 pallets. On opening Croxley moved in 375 B-trains of stationery product for storage and dispatch under the facility’s four-acre roof.

Mr Naus says many of the company’s customers have their own storage and dispatch facilities in South Auckland so the location of its new facility would reduce fuel consumption and travel time and cost.

“The Wiri location puts us in proximity of key road transport routes allowing us to easily service the whole of the North Island from Auckland.”

The Croxley distribution centre holds over $20million of inventory, providing next-day delivery as a nationwide customer service promise. The location and logistics of the new facility allows Croxley to fulfil its nationwide delivery at lower cost.

Mr Naus says these advantages will be enhanced in the short-term by the company’s investment in high tech storage and sorting systems which when available will improve efficiency and accuracy.

The distribution centre’s operations are built around a paperless picking system including conveyor belts, electronic bin locators and ‘voice pick’ head sets.

“The head sets feature voice recognition, which basically directs the user and gets around any language barriers – a first for the stationery industry.”

The centre employs 50 full time staff and 30 temporary staff on three shifts, 24 hours a day, five days a week.

The distribution centre began dispatching on 8 October and will be officially opened today.

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