Ferag automates store logistics for Fnac

Customers can purchase iPhones, books, coffee, toys and colouring pencils through Fnac Spain's online shop and at its stores. Shopping baskets containing diverse items are part of everyday life for the company’s logistics teams, both in the stores and behind the scenes in its digital retail business. Which is why the French retail group has taken its first steps towards automating store processes at its Spanish distribution centre in Rivas-Vaciamadrid. The logistics centre supplies both the Spanish stores and the company’s e-commerce customers. 

Swiss intralogistics experts Ferag are responsible for the automation project in the Madrid metropolitan area, and have decided to introduce the Denisort sorting system. The installation is more than 120 m long. The Swiss-made sorting solution is particularly sought after by retailers that offer a broad range of products, as its tilting trays can hold items of all shapes and sizes – thereby making order picking for the stores, and in future e-commerce customers, easier. In Rivas-Vaciamadrid, the system serves 230 different sorting destinations. 

It can also be used to process returns. In total, its sorting capacity can reach up to 7200 product units per hour. The solution also includes management software that is fully integrated into Fnac Spain’s IT system. Shift leaders and managers therefore always have an overview of picking progress, returns, KPIs and problems with the system. 

The sorter combines conveying, sorting and order picking into a single system. This impressed the management team at Fnac, but the Spaniards were not only interested in speed and process stability when they laid out their requirements to Ferag's representatives. The logistics specialists were looking for a modular system that could be adapted to the available space and could be expanded quickly, as Fnac Darty operates across Europe and grew by seven per cent in 2021, generating more than EUR 8 billion in the process. And it has no plans of stopping there. Even when it presented its latest figures, the management was already announcing plans for further investments in logistics. 

To benefit both customers and the company’s staff. “We were able to reduce replenishment times at the stores and focus more on our customers in the process,” explains Alberto Martínez, Head of Operations and Production at Fnac. He highlights the benefits of improved product classification, higher productivity and ergonomic workspaces. He expects the system to amortize within four years. In its next step, the Swiss team will integrate the online shop into the system. “We will be counting on Ferag,” explains Luis Jiménez, Head of Logistics at Fnac Spain.