Supply Chain is key for Kersting: New Automated CD in the pipeline

Having an operational space that supports growth projections is essential for the success of companies. In Kersting, a national company of recognized trajectory, with more than 80 years in the market of electrical items, through its brands Lexo Electric and VKB Iluminación, they were faced with this reality. The sustained development of the company in recent years, forced them to initiate a process of modernization of its logistics operation.

Having an operational space that supports growth projections is essential for the success of companies. Kersting, a national company of recognized trajectory, with more than 80 years in the electrical goods market, through its brands Lexo Electric and VKB Iluminación, was faced with this reality. The sustained development of the company in recent years forced them to initiate a process of modernization of their logistics operation.

How do we support the development of the company in the coming years? was the question that started this stage of changes that the company, of family origin, has undergone in recent times in order to professionalize and modernize its operation; in other words, Kersting seeks to improve its efficiency through the optimization of its logistics and, in this sense, its main project is the construction of a new Distribution Center.

In terms of infrastructure, the current warehouses are too small to accommodate the size of the operation. “Today we manage 3 separate warehouses, so the board decided to generate a project for a new Distribution Center, where we can gather all the logistics capacity under one roof,” says Ignacio Rovira, General Manager of Kersting.

After the decision, the company began a process of searching for a logistics consultant with experience and capacity to read correctly the present and the future of Kersting. That is how they came to Liike Consulting to help them answer key questions for the design of the project: what will be the size of the DC? What kind of technology will it have? How will the technologies be implemented? What will be the layout?

“We made a growth estimate for the next five years and, based on those technical specifications, Liike modeled the logistics requirement that we were going to have in the future and with that modeling we designed the architecture part, defined the technology, the level of automation, among other points. Liike knew how to read correctly what we want in logistics for the next years”, emphasizes Ignacio.

According to the General Manager, in Kersting there is the certainty that “without this investment it was impossible to project the growth for the next years”. In addition, they expect that with the implementation of technologies and automation there will also be significant savings in labor costs to operate the CD. Finally, according to the executive, the company also expects significant savings in freight and transportation, because “to the extent that they are all consolidated in a single center, significant savings in logistics costs will be generated”.

Referring to the design of the new DC, Rovira affirmed that it is fully validated by the company, because they are sure that the operational model proposed by Liike is adequate for its operation. “We are moving forward on this path hand in hand with them. We trust Liike’s expertise,” he says.

The new Distribution Center will be of 6 thousand m2 built, in a land of more than 15 thousand m2 that will house all the logistic and administrative operation of Kersting. “We leave the spaces to continue growing, because we are on a path of modernization. We have been growing in the electrical and lighting market, therefore, our DC solutions were complex, because it had to house different products, with different types of storage and packaging; and that made it challenging, but in Liike they knew how to solve”, says Ignacio.

For Kersting, Supply Chain is key to its success, since they import 100% of their products and the efficiency achieved at the logistics level is essential for the company’s competitiveness in the market.

Currently, the project is in the bidding and construction process and they expect to be operating in the new DC from the second half of 2023, where Liike will also accompany them in this process. Finally, Ignacio Rovira emphasizes the professional value and the company of the Liike team in this process.

“Liike has been very professional. We have moved forward with them and we will continue to move forward to continue projecting the growth of Kersting”, he adds.