Spotlight: E-fulfilment centre Roosendaal
At the end of 2019 Active Ants acquired e-fulfilment expert MCS Fulfilment located in Etten-Leur. At the time, the goal was to collectively take their e-fulfilment services to a higher level. It can now be said that this goal has been achieved, partly by taking the ultra-modern warehouse in Roosendaal into use. Jeroen Reedijk and Guus Munnik, the former founders of MCS Fulfilment, are now the directors of Active Ants Netherlands.
E-fulfilment centre Roosendaal
The E-fulfilment centre in Roosendaal, which opened in October 2020, has a warehouse space of 20,000 m2. The products of 200 webshops are currently stored here. But there is still room for many more webshops to place their stock in Roosendaal. Recently, the Autostore was expanded from 50,000 to 98,000 storage bins. The Autostore is now equipped with 100 storage robots. However, there is still an expansion capacity up to 200,000 bins and 150 additional robots. In the warehouse, 65 carrier robots transport the boxes with orders via the automatic packing machines to the right conveyor belt. At maximum capacity, the warehouse can process more than 8 million orders per year.
Market leader
"In recent years, Active Ants has become one of the market leaders in the field of e-fulfilment and innovation", says Jeroen Reedijk. "The ambition to grow further with this successful formula has therefore become even greater. We are very happy with the expansion in Roosendaal. These new storage bins are badly needed in order to facilitate the expected growth in the coming period."
Blueprint
Active Ants does not only want to expand nationally, but also internationally. The Roosendaal fulfilment centre serves as a blueprint for new international branches. Jeroen: "In addition to Nieuwegein and Roosendaal, we now also have fulfilment centres in Belgium (Willebroek) and Germany (Dorsten). Later this year we will open our fifth warehouse in Northampton in the United Kingdom. And next year we are planning to open a sixth location, in France''.
Ambitious plans
In order to realise these ambitious plans, a new division of tasks was necessary. This is why Active Ants' founders, Jeroen Dekker and Jean Lahaye, have handed over their responsibilities to Jeroen and Guus. Guus: ''We are, in our role of director, responsible for the Dutch business unit. Jeroen and Jean, as Managing Partners, will in turn focus on the international expansion of Active Ants'.
(from left to right) Jeroen Reedijk, Guus Munnik, Jean Lahaye and Jeroen Dekker
New fulfilment optimisations and a "Big hairy audacious goal"
Jeroen and Guus obviously also brought new ambitions to Active Ants. Jeroen: "We are looking to further optimise and fine-tune the concept. We will continue to look for new opportunities and improvements. In the end, the philosophy of automation and robotisation is that as little as possible needs to be done by hand", adds Guus. We call this the 'Big hairy audacious goal' of Active Ants. However, people will always be an indispensable link in the process of web shop logistics, emphasises Guus.
“Blind trust’’
The online orders of our customer STOX Energy Socks are shipped from the e-fulfilment centre in Roosendaal. ''We have ambitions and want to become market leader in Europe as well as in the Netherlands. The key is to have your logistics in order and to be able to deliver to all countries. Active Ants can do that. They meet our requirements", says Wouter de Keizer, CEO of STOX Energy Socks. It is important that you can trust your fulfilment party blindly. Our logistics is in contact with the colleagues at Active Ants regarding the deliveries from the factory in Italy. They know exactly what to expect. This cooperation runs very smoothly. And that's good, because if the basis isn't right, it's impossible to grow.''
Read more about the experiences of STOX Energy Socks
Logistic hotspot of the Netherlands
Why would you stock your products in Roosendaal? Roosendaal, located in West-Brabant, is a diverse region with 700,000 inhabitants and the logistics hotspot of the Netherlands. The accessibility of logistics hubs is very important. Not only for your suppliers, but also for our transporters who bring your shipments to the customer. Nationally and internationally. Thanks to the excellent infrastructure, you can be in Antwerp or Rotterdam within 45 minutes. The ports in these two cities are logistically very important and they are also the two largest in Europe.
Online shopping
The Netherlands is also a very interesting country for foreign webshops. The Dutch do a lot of shopping online. About 11.7 million people bought something at a webshop or online service in 2021. That is 77 percent of all Dutch people older than 12, reports Statistics Netherlands (CBS). And it is expected that this number will increase even further. Online purchases in the Beauty & Health categories in particular increased in number.
Compared to other countries, Dutch consumers score high when it comes to their preference for online shopping. Internationally, the Netherlands ranks 5th and this preference has only increased in the past year. Especially shoppers younger than 40 (Gen Z and Millennials) shop more online than in physical shops. If the current trend continues, it is expected that 41-56 year olds (Gen X'ers) will join them in 2022 (source: internetkassa.nu).
No import duty
For international companies, it is also interesting to store their stock in Roosendaal. In a number of cases, they pay less or no import duties. This can provide a competitive advantage and a higher profit margin. Read more about this on the site of the Chamber of Commerce.
More information?
Would you like more information about our fulfilment services from our warehouse in Roosendaal? Or would you like to get to know our ant warehouse live, without obligation? Click on one of the buttons below to contact us.
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