Van Dorp Hout

A lot of steel for the wood specialists

With a variety of different cantilever racks from OHRA, Van Dorp Hout solved the challenge of being able to continue to supply its enormously growing customer base with goods quickly and sufficiently while maintaining the same storage space. The leading specialist in garden timber in the Randstad region of the Netherlands purchased cantilever racks with a total length of more than 240 metres in 2019 and 2020 - in various heights, some with roofs. Today, customers can be supplied with the desired goods more quickly, efficiently and at shorter notice. Thanks to the racking, Van Dorp Hout has been able to increase its storage capacity in the relevant areas by 40 per cent.

Plenty of room for further storage capacity

Until now, Van Dorp Hout stored the wood piles with lengths of one to eight metres in long rows on the ground in these areas. Since the boards, beams and planks were taken by hand, the stacks could not be higher than one and a half metres. This left a lot of unused space upwards in the storage areas.

With and without roof in different heights

However, as the customer base grew rapidly in recent years, but the 18,000 square metres of indoor and outdoor storage space could not be expanded, Van Dorp Hout decided to increase its storage capacity with cantilever racking from OHRA. Already in 2019, the company installed 5-metre-high cantilever racking with a roof in a length of 48 metres, as well as a further 55 metres of cantilever racking in various low heights. More racks then followed in 2020: 48 metres of racks with a height of 5 metres and with a roof as weather protection for the stored timber, 20 metres of the same height without a roof as well as about 70 metres of cantilever racks in heights between 2 and 2.5 metres. An additional 110 metres of OHRA racking then followed in 2021: Another 40 metres of five-metre-high racking with a roof, as well as a number of different smaller shelves without a roof.

More items accessed faster

"We have known OHRA since 2010. Since then we have been a big fan of the very simple and robust shelving system," says Managing Director Henk-Arie Schra. "Besides the technical specifications, we also appreciate the easy assembly of the racks." So it was no problem for the Van Dorp Hout employees to assemble the low racks themselves - although the wood experts had to deal with the unfamiliar material of steel. The heavier, high racks were installed by OHRA's fitters. Today, Van Dorp Hout stores the daily demand for goods on the lower levels of the racks and the longer-term demand on the storage levels above. In addition, the company uses four-way forklifts and simple forklifts to store and retrieve the goods. Overall, the wood can thus be stored much more efficiently. Not only is there room for a larger quantity of items, but Van Dorp Hout has also been able to expand the range with additional items.