Clarks builds new US distribution centre

Clarks Companies, North America, a division of Somerset, UK-based shoe retailer Clarks, is opening a new state-of-the-art distribution centre in North America. The new premises will be located directly opposite the company’s current facility in Hanover, Pennsylvania and will use technology capable of handling volumes of up to 50 million pairs of shoes annually to support growing demand from customers and retailers in the US. The new building, which will be 451,000 square feet and approaching 25 metres in height, is expected to be occupied by the end of 2012.

Clarks selected a system from Knapp to manage material handling from unloading through to shipping. At the core of the new handling system will be Knapp’s OSR Shuttle system, used for goods-to-person picking, buffering, storage and sequencing. Maximum use of building height, flexibility in balancing workloads between functional operations and low energy consumption through the technology will also support Clarks’ requirements for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), the US scheme for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings.