Southern Wine & Spirits opens highly automated warehouse from W&H Systems

W&H Systems Inc. is a full-service integrator of material handling systems. The company recently announced the opening of Southern Wine & Spirits of America’s highly automated warehouse in Union City, Calif. Developed in partnership with W&H Systems and Westfalia Technologies, the new facility houses four automated storage and retrieval (AS/RS) systems that refill pallets automatically.

“We’re always looking for innovative solutions to leverage world-class supply chain capabilities to reduce costs, deliver optimal fulfillments and provide tailored customer service,” said Southern Wine & Spirits of America President and CEO Wayne Chaplin. “We tore down the existing Atlantic Street structure to invest in the development of this state-of-the-art facility that will not only drive value for our trading partners, but also drive internal operational efficiencies that will allow Southern to remain competitive in this ever-changing and highly competitive wholesale environment.”

“Southern Wine & Spirits of America chose to work with W&H Systems because of our extensive experience in the wine and spirits distribution market,” said Paul Laman, VP of W&H Systems. “We offer a comprehensive turnkey design and solution taking into account all of the operational factors. Our solutions include high-rate combiners and sorters, high-speed conveyors, our advanced WCS called Shiraz, AS/RS, pick modules and more. With 20 years of experience in the wine & spirits industry, our solutions bring best practices and efficiencies to the distribution operations in order to improve fulfillment, throughput operations and customer service levels.”

At 334,000 square feet and 55 feet tall, the new facility can house more than 12,000 SKUs and 1.8 million cases. Atlantic Street is the first four-high in rack pick module the company has built. The AS/RS — built in collaboration with W&H Systems and Westfalia Technologies, Inc. — stores 24,750 pallets and is equipped for deep pallet storage — up to 10 pallets deep. Four storage and retrieval machines (SRM) refill pallets automatically and each SRM can process more than 80 pallets per hour. Additionally, Atlantic Street is LEED Gold certified by the U.S. Green Building Council.