News: Inside Maplin's expanding Rotherham HQ

A case study of distribution suppliers Jungheinrich UK Ltd gives an insight into Maplin Electronics' headquarters at Brookfields Park in Rotherham. Launched in 1972 from a spare bedroom in Rayleigh, Essex, as an electrical goods mail order business, Maplin is now one of the most significant retailers in the UK. The company offers an extensive range of over 14,000 products, has a website which attracts over 140,000 visitors every day and a network of over 150 retail outlets throughout the UK and Ireland that is currently expanding at the rate of approximately one new store every two weeks. To keep pace with its anticipated development, Maplin recently moved to a 200,000 sq ft state of the art distribution centre at Manvers in Rotherham. Jungheinrich supplied and installed everything, from high bay pallet racking to conveyors and work benches and the forkllift trucks operating at the site that not only services all of the company's stores but also acts as the e-fulfilment centre for Maplin's website. The distribution centre includes a warehouse with 17 loading bay doors, a bulk store featuring over 7,000 pallet positions and a conveyor system that links the bulk store, the order assembly area and the dispatch area. The system has been designed and built in such a way that it will be able to accommodate the company's growth for the next ten years. The Yorkshire Business Insider reports that St Pauls Developments has developed a further 20,000 sq ft of office space to accomodate the expansion of Maplin.

Maplin website
Materials Handling World Magazine
Logistics Handling article
Yorkshire Business Insider website
Rotherham