Sandra Neuber launched her online shop in 2007 in Ahrensburg in the northern part of Germany. FoodOase started in Neuber’s garage and has now grown into a leading provider in specialist foods. In 2019, Neuber’s business merged with online food retailer Querfood and, in 2020, they installed AutoStore.
FoodOase is a food retailer with a difference: it caters specifically to customers with food allergies and intolerances. People who fall into this category will know how time-consuming and frustrating it can be to find suitable products. A lot of time is spent scrutinizing ingredients lists and searching for appropriate products. Then, once customers find items, choices are often limited.
“With our allergy filter tool, you can find the foods online that are suitable for you quickly and easily,” Neuber says.
In 2020, partly due to the pandemic, there was an enormous increase in customer demand and order volume. The increased demand placed additional pressure on the manually operated warehouse on the outskirts of Hamburg.
“We quickly realized that a new logistics concept was necessary to fulfill these orders,” says Neuber.
She rented a logistics hall in Geesthacht. Then, with the support of Element Logic and the German logistics consultant LogBer, FoodOase installed a fully automated, robot-based AutoStore storage and retrieval system. Element Logic also supplied a warehouse management and material flow control system for the FoodOase warehouse.
From this new warehouse, the team now processes orders placed via their online shop.
“This is one of the largest, but also most important, investments in the history of FoodOase,” Neuber notes. “Our customers expect that we ship very quickly and reliably. Due to our customers’ special nutritional needs, they struggle to find suitable food for their daily needs in the usual supermarkets. With our new automated warehouse, we’ll continue to meet these customer expectations, now and in the future.”
FoodOase’s AutoStore system, empowered by Element Logic, went into operation in February 2021.
The store’s specialized products and food are now stored in Bins, stacked on top of each other in an aluminum grid. Inside this grid, which stretches over 220 square meters (2,368 square feet), there are 6,100 Bins. Each has a storage capacity of 75 liters (20 gallons) and a maximum storage weight of 30kg (66lbs).
A total of 13 Robots drive along the top of this grid at a speed of about 3 meters (9.8 feet) per second, using grippers to pull up the requested Bins from below at a rate of 1.6 meters (5.2 feet) per second.
When Robots need to dig for a Bin, it places the above Bins in the surrounding cells. Once a Robot has retrieved the right Bin, another cleans up, moving the displaced Bins back to their original location in the grid. The system uses three CarouselPorts to handle inbound and outbound goods.
AutoStore has been an investment that’s paid off for FoodOase. Here are some of the advantages of the system:
For Neuber, one of the most significant benefits has been that her company can now serve its customers faster than ever before. “Our customers expect that we ship very quickly and reliably,” she says. “AutoStore helps us to fulfill our promise (of fast, efficient delivery) to our customers.”
nanSandra Neuber launched her online shop in 2007 in Ahrensburg in the northern part of Germany. FoodOase started in Neuber’s garage and has now grown into a leading provider in specialist foods. In 2019, Neuber’s business merged with online food retailer Querfood and, in 2020, they installed AutoStore.
FoodOase is a food retailer with a difference: it caters specifically to customers with food allergies and intolerances. People who fall into this category will know how time-consuming and frustrating it can be to find suitable products. A lot of time is spent scrutinizing ingredients lists and searching for appropriate products. Then, once customers find items, choices are often limited.
“With our allergy filter tool, you can find the foods online that are suitable for you quickly and easily,” Neuber says.
In 2020, partly due to the pandemic, there was an enormous increase in customer demand and order volume. The increased demand placed additional pressure on the manually operated warehouse on the outskirts of Hamburg.
“We quickly realized that a new logistics concept was necessary to fulfill these orders,” says Neuber.
She rented a logistics hall in Geesthacht. Then, with the support of Element Logic and the German logistics consultant LogBer, FoodOase installed a fully automated, robot-based AutoStore storage and retrieval system. Element Logic also supplied a warehouse management and material flow control system for the FoodOase warehouse.
From this new warehouse, the team now processes orders placed via their online shop.
“This is one of the largest, but also most important, investments in the history of FoodOase,” Neuber notes. “Our customers expect that we ship very quickly and reliably. Due to our customers’ special nutritional needs, they struggle to find suitable food for their daily needs in the usual supermarkets. With our new automated warehouse, we’ll continue to meet these customer expectations, now and in the future.”
FoodOase’s AutoStore system, empowered by Element Logic, went into operation in February 2021.
The store’s specialized products and food are now stored in Bins, stacked on top of each other in an aluminum grid. Inside this grid, which stretches over 220 square meters (2,368 square feet), there are 6,100 Bins. Each has a storage capacity of 75 liters (20 gallons) and a maximum storage weight of 30kg (66lbs).
A total of 13 Robots drive along the top of this grid at a speed of about 3 meters (9.8 feet) per second, using grippers to pull up the requested Bins from below at a rate of 1.6 meters (5.2 feet) per second.
When Robots need to dig for a Bin, it places the above Bins in the surrounding cells. Once a Robot has retrieved the right Bin, another cleans up, moving the displaced Bins back to their original location in the grid. The system uses three CarouselPorts to handle inbound and outbound goods.
AutoStore has been an investment that’s paid off for FoodOase. Here are some of the advantages of the system:
For Neuber, one of the most significant benefits has been that her company can now serve its customers faster than ever before. “Our customers expect that we ship very quickly and reliably,” she says. “AutoStore helps us to fulfill our promise (of fast, efficient delivery) to our customers.”