Fully automated freezer warehouse

Kühlhaus Neuhof AG, CH-Gossau

A warehouse operator in the deep-freeze sector, Kühlhaus Neuhof AG was founded in 1977 in Gossau, Switzerland. It specialises in the storage of meat, processed potatoes, semi-finished vegetables and all types of foodstuffs. In 2010, it constructed a new building with around 5,780 pallet places that went into operation in 2012. Gilgen Logistics supplied its pallet conveyor technology as well as the truck docking stations.

Requirements

Primarily, services in the foodstuffs storage and transhipment sector are provided at this deep-freeze warehouse. Various customers (partners and third parties) make use of these logistics services to outsource their production volumes and for interim storage of raw materials. Contrary to expectations, the doubling of capacity realised upon construction of the new building was already reached around the end of its second year of operation. This meant it became possible to meet the business partners' storage requests only to a limited degree. In just five years, the facilities are going to be around one and a half times the size of the existing building.

Logistics solution

Gilgen Logistics AG has been commissioned with this expansion of the deep-freeze warehouse. The capacity of the existing high-bay storage facility is going to be increased from 5,780 to more than 13,100 pallet spaces, with two additional storage aisles (one double-deep stacker crane / one multiple-deep stacker crane, with shuttle). The products are stored in a fully automatic high-bay storage facility at a temperature of approx. -28°C. The pallet conveyor technology with two lifts will be installed in a temperature region of -28°C and in part in a flash-freezing region of ‑38°C. In addition, Gilgen will also be supplying the control system, the warehouse management system and the material flow computer for the new logistics facility. In one section of the warehouse, manual picking areas will be installed over two storeys. What is more, Gilgen will also install a projecting section with two docking platforms and an external platform.

Besides the expansion of the high-bay storage facility, improvements will also be made to the logistics technology in the present warehouse. Thus, in the future, it will also be possible to move pallets between the existing and the new high-bay storage facility. In the future, electricity from the new photovoltaic system will cover a large part of the energy consumed by the deep-freeze warehouse.

Kühlhaus Neuhof AG in Gossau has more than doubled its storage capacity with an additional 17 million expensive extension. In addition, new services such as shock freezing, defrosting or picking are offered. On 21.02.2019 the Kühlhaus invited to the opening of the extension.