New warehouse pioneers system only used in China

A new giant warehouse in England's logistics "golden triangle" is adopting pioneering technology previously only used in China, a company said.

Yusen Logistics UK said it will use a robotics and four-way conveyor system at its new site on the edge of Northampton, which will also employ hundreds of staff.

"There are some roles that robots can do better than people, but fundamentally robots don't work without people," said David Evans, the company's managing director.

The Japanese firm opened its 1.1m sq ft (102,193 sq m) site with a fusion ceremony that included a traditional counting song, sushi, and fish and chips.

Evans said 150 people were already working at the site, but that could rise to 500-900 as operations expanded.

"What we're seeing here is a change in the skill set that we need in our industry. We have more technicians, more engineering roles," he said.

Brian Luck, the site's general manager, said humans and robots would work closely together.

"The system is purely designed to make the goods-to-person access, where staff can pick up to eight orders plus at any one time.

"That is the first time outside of China that this system has actually been deployed here in Europe, so we're pretty much the pioneering site for that outside of China," he said.

The centre will focus on "business-to-business deliveries", primarily working with electronics manufacturers, but also provide home delivery services.

A quarter of the space will house pharmaceuticals, which need to be temperature-controlled.

Next to the M1 motorway, the company has labelled the site as a "sustainable" distribution centre, complete with solar panels and rainwater harvesting.

Yusen also hopes to utilise the Northampton Gateway Rail Freight Interchange in the future, which has suffered delays and setbacks in making it operational.

The new warehouse is on the Segro Logistics Park, between Milton Malsor and Collingtree.

Permission for the park was granted in 2019 for rail-served warehousing and ancillary buildings.

People in nearby villages had campaigned against the plan, saying it would cause unacceptable traffic congestion and put green space and wildlife habitats at risk.

Benjamin Bird, Yusen's business development director, said the company picked the site for two reasons.

"One, we're in the [logistics] golden triangle - it kind of starts at Leicester, goes all the way down to Milton Keynes and across.

"We've also got other sites in the area, such as Grange Park, Wellingborough, Malton," he said.

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