Reorganized pick areas provide sweet results

Founded in 1938, Capital Candy is a wholesaler for grocery and convenience stores. As manufacturers introduced new product extensions by the hundreds, the company ran out of space. By reconfiguring the warehouse and pick areas, the company was able to increase productivity and handle surges in inventory.

Even with 70,000 square feet of warehouse space spread over three buildings, Capital Candy was stretched to the limit. “In any space-constrained building like ours—a 175-year-old granite shed with lots of poles, beams and posts—maximizing the cube is imperative,” says operations manager Jim Thibeault.

The company considered several options including moving to a new building, constructing an addition and stacking inventory higher—an inefficient approach since perishables have to be rotated regularly. Instead, the company reorganized the facility and installed new carton flow solutions (UNEX, unex.com) in the pick areas for each product group.

The grocery area needed a major overhaul, requiring the construction of a three-level pick module. On the first level, low-profile carton flow roller lanes with a drop-in design nest between the beams, maximizing vertical space for product storage. The second and third levels were set up for pallet storage, which allowed Capital Candy to make the most of limited warehouse space.

The cigarette area uses roller rack with high-profile carton flow that sits on top of the beams, allowing the carton flow track to extend beyond the structure and store more units per SKU. In the freezer and cooler sections, a combination of low- and high-profile pallet rack creates easy access.

The candy and dairy lines also received upgrades. Since implementing the new solutions, Capital Candy has added 1,000 new SKUs, improved pick rates by 35%, cut labor costs and improved first-in, first-out (FIFO) handling.

“In the past, if you got a delivery twice a week, sometimes the latest ended up on top of the previous delivery, and the lower inventory went out of date,” Thibeault says. “The carton flow approach put an end to that problem.”

UNEX Case Study: Capital Candy (Link to PDF)