Hortim enters a new era: New sales and distribution units opened in Brno and Senec

Brno, Czech Republic

Hortim International provides a comprehensive service in the field of fruit and vegetables, from growing and importing through storage, ripening, packaging and subsequent export. It prefers to supply fresh fruit and vegetables from domestic production and out-of-season domestic markets, taking advantage of the synergies of the international Total Produce group, one of the world’s largest suppliers of fresh produce. In order to improve its services, the company decided to increase its handling and storage capabilities and to built two brand new warehouses in two years.

Project Senec

Together with its major customer COOP Jednota SK, which has over 2,200 supermarkets and food retail outlets, Hortim has built a modern semi-automated operation in Slovakia, unique in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The company’s motto is to deliver fresh goods of the highest quality. To this end it has opted for process automation of its new refrigerated logistics platform. The result is a complete digital operation system in which, through technologies such as IoT (Internet of Things), AI (Artificial Intelligence) and digital twins, logistics operations and supply processes are dynamically controlled across the material flow of the operation - from receipt of goods to dispatch of customer orders.

New distribution centre in Senec, Slovakia

maximize efficiency in the work process. This innovative food logistics solution manages processes with the fewest resources while achieving the highest operational performance. This means that fruit and vegetables can re-

ach customers within 24 hours of picking by home growers.

This new logistics platform also includes new hardware devices that have not been used in the Hortim Group before. These include, for example, pallet stackers up to 10 m above the ground with special self-propelled forklifts. Induction strips are installed on the ground to control the travel of the trucks. They cannot be deflected out of their intended path. Furthermore, the trolleys are sized to pass through narrower racks. Thus, instead of 1 rack of goods, 3 racks can be built.

On 14th August 2020, a modern, new distribution unit with an area of more than 10,000 sqm and up to 1,500 tons of fresh fruit and vegetables was opened in Senec, Slovakia. From the outside, this warehouse will impress one with its size and clean design that evokes stability and precision. Precision work and a high level of commitment are a matter of course here. The new warehouse is managed by a WMS (Warehouse Management System), a system where the flow of goods and stock, including all operational efficiency, is controlled by computer technology. Thanks to this dynamic management, the centre can dispatch fruit and vegetables within a few tens of minutes of receiving an order, while being able to process up to 1,500 orders per day.

What makes this project special?

The new logistics centre is managed by intelligent technology that controls operations to avoid human error and

Brno HQ, new distribution centre

The picking process is also divided into picking with trolleys that have built-in tablets connected via Wi-Fi to the WMS,

New banana ripening technology in Brno.

which navigate the operator together with the accompanying “Pick To Light” system. In practice, this means that the worker is guided by lights at a specific counter with the selected fruit and vegetables. This speeds up the dispatch of small orders. Another interesting feature is kilo picking using a set of racks and conveyor belts to pick small orders. This is a very sophisticated system that not only brings minimal errors in the work, but especially time savings. The warehouse is divided into 3 zones (zone 1: 2° C-6° C, zone 2: 6° C-9° C, zone 3: 10° C-12° C), where each zone has a precisely set temperature that ideally suits the goods.

Hortim’s customers will experience a higher quality

of service. This means lower picking errors, more flexible and more accurate logistics. The system can react flexibly to changes in real time, allowing immediate response to changes in the market and consumer behaviour while maintaining the speed, freshness and quality of fruit and vegetables. This means, for example, that if a client sends 4 orders, the system integrates them into 1, so the client gets everything on 1 pallet. Hortim can deliver not only on large pallets but also on half pallets, which saves space in the dispatch process.

Project Brno

The Czech headquarters of the Hortim Group is not idle and is running at full speed. Hortim has important retail and wholesale clients. To meet the ever-increasing number of orders from these partners, it was necessary to expand the existing Brno warehouse, and so in 2019 the first proposals for a new large hall of 4500 sqm appeared. This was completed in June this year.

Thanks to the installation of state-of-the-art technology, the warehouse will bring a significant increase in productivity and a reduction in operating costs. In the new building one will also find new and modern administrative facilities.

In the first part of the new warehouse there are new 48 ripening chambers for ripening bananas. Computer controlled ripening ensures the highest quality bananas for customers at any time of the year. The bananas are stored at a temperature of 11° C-18° C. The new technology improves the quality of storage and ripening of bananas at different stages of ripeness for all customer groups. In the second part, a modern packaging centre is now being prepared, where the goods will be packed in different packaging (punnets, nets, etc.). With its suppliers, the company is constantly developing new sophisticated packaging that is environmentally friendly. The focus is on recyclates and, since 2019, on biodegradable films.

Kilo picking in Slovakia

The packing centre also includes a new line for detecting

external and internal quality defects in round fruit

using camera technology. All of these new technologies are aimed at one goal: to deliver fresh, high-quality fruit and vegetables on time, every time.

Sources: Hortim | More than wholesale fruit and vegetables. Hortim | More than wholesale fruit and vegetables [online]. Available from: https://www. hortim.cz/

Smart Industry solutions EMANS | Intelligent and autonomous business process control | ANASOFT. Development of customized software, IT services: ANASOFT [online]. Copyright © Anasoft [cit. 28.06.2021]. Available from: https://www.anasoft.com/emans/cz/

Brno HQ, new distribution centre

Contact

Hortim International spol. s r.o. Kšírova 616/242 619 00 Brno, Czech Republic T +420 543 522 222 • F +420 543 522 333 brno@hortim.cz, www.hortim.cz