Breakthru Beverage Illinois

“The challenge we faced was the fact that we were working out of three warehouses. This was a totally inefficient operations but we made it work,” said Richard (Rocky) Ruane, Director of Warehouse Operations.

Ruane continued, “With the growth of our business we started to see that we could be limited in our ability to service our customers during our high peak times. “We needed a warehouse which would give us the efficiencies that we needed to match our go to market strategies as we continue to grow.”

Breakthru Beverage decided to build a new facility in Cicero, IL, understanding that they needed to invest for long-term growth. This reinvestment included site re-development of the former Sportsman’s Park. The 35 acre site lot was chosen to fit the 604,907 sq. ft. building. Standing tall at 42 feet, the new distribution center included 555,449 sq. ft. of warehouse, 106,409 sq. ft. of office space and 25,000 sq. ft. of cooler.

Today’s modern facilities are required to process increasingly complex tasks and provide reliability and flexibility for future needs.

Specializing in high density storage systems, Westfalia’s AS/RS provides Breakthru Beverage with the ability to store up to 10 pallets deep while maintaining a balance of inventory and movements across the system. The 42 foot tall building is equipped with five high storage racks with three tandem Storage and Retrievel Machines (S/RM). Using the Satellite® system, storing and retrieving loads in Breakthru Beverage’s high density configuration significantly increases storage capacity and reduces the footprint of the system. The Satellite® system also provides triple support so the load weight is distributed evenly and more reliably in the rack.

“This design also led to us being more cost and labor efficient,” added Ruane. ”Our receiving docks were set up in front of the AS/RS which gave us the efficiency of not having to drive throughout the warehouse to put away all of our inbound product. We cut our receiving time of our primary product in half.”

Westfalia’s Savanna.NET® Warehouse Management System is the power behind the AS/RS. Savanna.NET® provides control of all product flows and maximum system flexibility which allowed Westfalia to customize the functionality specific to Breakthru Beverage.