Record-high warehouse for Kiev factory

Imperial Tobacco is currently building at its Kiev factory what is due to become Ukraine’s tallest, fully automated, high-bay warehouse.

The new facility is being built to improve the efficiency of the company’s supply chain.

When completed, the 34-meter-high building will provide space for more than 16,000 pallets. It will have the capacity to store the production equivalent of up to 40 billion cigarettes and materials.

So far, the concrete foundations have been laid and a fire-resistant wall put in place between the warehouse and a new 4,000-square-meter handling area, which will have eight loading bays.

Teams from Imperial’s Group Supply Chain and Group Manufacturing are said to have worked closely on the project to ensure a fully integrated approach from factory floor to logistics.

“This new warehouse and associated handling area will bring supply chain services and storage currently outsourced back under our control,” said Edgar Gerke, HBW [high-bay warehouse] Kiev program manager.

“The state-of-the-art systems planned in Kiev have been developed to become the standard for other sites across the group.

“Ultimately this project will help ensure increased availability of our products to customers in the region.”