Swisslog builds deep-freeze warehouse for TKL in Vienna

One of Austria’s leaders in temperature-controlled food logistics, TKL Lebensmittel Logistik based in Vienna, is expanding by working with IntraLogisteX exhibitor, Swisslog, as its intralogistics provider. To help it achieve its expansion plans, the installation of automatic and semi-automatic systems including software control is planned to be complete by autumn 2023.

The expansion project has an envisaged go-live date in the fall of 2023. It will feature an automated pallet high-bay warehouse, and an electric monorail system that also provides the semi-automatic picking system – operated at an ambient temperature of -22°C. In addition, Swisslog’s own warehouse management software, SynQ, will be installed.

“Our frozen food segment has grown steadily in recent years,” said Wilhelm Leithner, Managing Partner of TKL, “and this sector has experienced a further push forward since the outbreak of the Corona pandemic”. Here, he said, frozen food consumption among private households has continued to rise, with the result that TKL’s customers in the food trade have also reported greater demand.

Swisslog’s scope of supply includes four fully automated Vectura stacker cranes for handling Euro or industrial pallets, and a CaddyPick system. CaddyPick is a picking solution that combines the person-to-goods principle with the zone-to-zone method. It uses electric monorail vehicles that travel through the picking aisles of a warehouse while being loaded on pallets or in mesh pallets by order pickers traveling with them. CaddyPick is a proven system for store-specific transport units with mixed assortments and has also been installed by Swisslog for other retail companies in Germany including dm drogerie-markt and Gries Deco Company. The software control of all technologies will be done via Swisslog’s SynQ warehouse management system.

“We are very pleased that TKL has placed its trust in us,” said Christopher Herweg, Head of Sales Germany & Austria at Swisslog, explaining that the planning process was particularly challenging due to Corona. “We did everything ‘remotely’, which was a new experience for both TKL and us.”