Potatoes are among the world's most important foodstuffs. An increasing number of consumers are also choosing processed or frozen potato products. Agristo N.V. is one of the largest manufacturers of potato-based foods. The Belgian family-owned company produces for supermarkets, catering firms, fast-food chains and the food processing industry, and now exports to over 80 countries worldwide.

Even though Agristo N.V. has now become a global player in the development and production of frozen potato products, the company still works with regional potato farmers. The harvested crops are washed, sorted and then processed into crisps and other potato products such as mashed potatoes, croquettes or French fries. At the production site in Wielsbeke, for example, an average of 120 trucks deliver almost 3,500 pallets of fresh potatoes every day. Agristo stores all products in high-bay refrigerated warehouses until they are delivered. An intralogistics solution from Dematic handles the automatic storage and retrieval of the pallets in the warehouse and transports them to the loading dock.

Agristo plans to produce almost one million tonnes of potato products per year. In view of the almost 20,000 tonnes in the first year after its foundation in 1986, this is a quantum leap. In order to continue to be able to react flexibly to customer needs and to ensure the best possible product quality, the company is already setting the course and relying on innovative solutions. This also applies to intralogistics, which has been optimised by Dematic's automation solutions. "In the food industry, quality and delivery times are important competitive factors," explains Jery Bonny, Supply Chain Manager at Agristo N.V. "That's why we are constantly looking for ways not only to modernise our product range, but also to optimise our warehouse processes." An important strategic decision was therefore to invest in Dematic's automation technology for the cold stores. The intralogistics specialist installed fully automated high-bay warehouses at various locations.

At the beginning of this century, Agristo built the first high-bay cold store at its site in Tilburg, the Netherlands. Further high-bay warehouses followed at the headquarters in Harelbeke and in Nazareth and Wielsbeke, Belgium. "There, we have an inbound capacity of 200 pallets per hour and an outbound capacity of 600 pallets per hour," reports Bonny. "This is because we produce around the clock and only transport pallets between five in the morning and nine at night on weekdays." All customer orders are transferred directly to Dematic's WMS software via the SAP ERP system.

Last year, Dematic built a fully automated high-bay warehouse in Wielsbeke with eight stacker cranes with telescopic forks and a conveyor with pallet lifts for the supply and disposal of all pallets. With this solution, the second cold store at the site is also connected to production and dispatch. Just like in the first warehouse, the entire system is controlled by Dematic's WMS software. ‘We store all pallets in our cold stores double and triple deep to make optimal use of the available space,’ explains Bonny. “A sequencer in the Dematic conveyor system also allows for the temporary buffering of pallets, so that we can process several orders simultaneously as efficiently as possible.” During internal transport, all pallets are checked at several locations.

Before Agristo decided to automate its cold stores, it had been using external storage partners for several years. ‘If you compare the costs of external warehousing and the associated transport with the investments, the cold stores will pay for themselves in about five to six years,’ predicts Bonny. In addition, there are the advantages of better control over product quality, opportunities for process optimisation and, even more important for Agristo, flexibility and responsiveness to customers. This is important to Agristo because large supermarket chains often have to deal with seasonal peaks or run special promotions, and suppliers have to be able to quickly anticipate these. In addition, Agristo's ambitions for the coming years and the expected growth in its customer base mean that the company will continue to invest in its refrigerated warehouses.

The first point of contact is always the company from Heusenstamm, Bonny assures us: ‘Now that the fourth cold store has been put into operation to our complete satisfaction over the past year, we have already discussed possible further optimisations with Dematic. I always find our discussions to be very constructive and customer-oriented.’ This also applies to the services provided. Since the smooth operation of all logistics systems is critical to Agristo's business, a 24/7 service and maintenance contract has been concluded for the entire facility. ’Dematic has a local team in both Belgium and the Netherlands with years of expertise in the food industry. If we have questions, we get answers quickly.’ In addition, a mechanic visits the site every quarter to maintain the entire conveyor system and to carry out other preventive maintenance work.