The Catch Group is predicting this year will be the online shopping group’s best Christmas yet, following the launch of its new automated warehouse system.
The centre piece in its 26,000sqm warehouse in Melbourne, the custom build solution is able to more then double the amount orders per day to 25,000, and halve shipping times from 48 – 72 hours to 24 – 48 hours.
In a world first, Catch Group has deployed Swisslog’s Autostore product for medium and slow moving lines and the Swisslog Quick Move conveyor for fast moving products, all controlled under Swisslog’s WM6 warehouse management system.
Catch Group co-founder, Gabby Leibovich, says the investment will be pivotal in strengthening the company’s competitive position.
“The new system is a source of real competitive advantage, dramatically streamlining and improving our logistics operations to become more efficient and faster. It allows us to sell more and offer a much wider range of goods in more categories, helping us to keep up with our customers’ appetite for great deals,” Leibovich said.
Deployed just ahead of the Christmas retail rush, Leibovich is predicting the group’s best Christmas sales ever, thanks in part to its now enhanced capacity to sell and process orders.
“In the past, during the Christmas season we had to take the foot off the pedal as we could not handle the amount of orders. This Christmas we are shipping next day and offering more than twice the amount of products which is being reflected in very strong pre-Christmas sales.”
Currently, the Catch Group sells one item every second and processes around 15,000 orders per day, with mobile sales accounting for 70 per cent of all transactions across the group.
The new system will enable the group to process around 25,000 orders across a significantly broader range of products.
“We spent a year touring all the best logistics operations in the country and in Asia and exploring a number of different solutions before settling on Swisslog and the Autostore. Our primary reason for selecting Swisslog as a partner was the Autostore, its simplicity, the high density of storage, the flexibility in its design and operation and the ease of expansion,” Leibovich said.
“Even then, it was not an out of the box solution. Every retailer has differing operations, so we spent a great deal of time customising the build to our exact requirements. The build took 12 months to complete and given Christmas timing was critical.”
According to Catch Group, staff are also benefitting with the introduction of the system.
“The warehouse automation is lightening the load on our warehouse team who, until recently, would have to walk kilometres everyday picking and packing orders using a trolley on a floor the size of the Melbourne Cricket Ground,” Leibovich said.
Founded in 2006, the Catch Group includes CatchOfTheDay, Scoopon, GroceryRun, Mumgo, Eatnow, and Yumtable.
