Future Electronics plans to open a new Electronics Distribution Centre (EDC) in Leipzig, Germany, in the first half of 2010. The EDC, which has an investment of greater than 40 million euros, is over 80 per cent larger than the current EDC in Hayes, UK, and will be Future Electronics first fully automated warehouse in Europe. The move reflects the changing epicentre of European manufacturing to eastern European countries. Leipzigs location at the centre of Europe improves Futures ability to deliver quickly to all areas of Eastern and Western Europe.
Future will also be able to offer late pick-up times to European locations including after midnight. The Leipzig warehouse will include 10 automated storage and retrieval (AS/RS) crane aisles with 255,000 tote and 4,400 pallet locations and will store 66,000 different articles at startup. The facility will also feature a double-deep rack design, which will enable maximum space-saving storage. The daily output of the distribution centre will be 4,200 shipments a total of 18,000 picks per day.