Automated material handling system supplier Beumer Group will automate Norwegian express parcel delivery business Helthjem’s new parcel terminal .
The parcel terminal in Vestby in the south of Norway consists of a production hall of approximately 12,000m2 plus an office department with support and administration functions. The new system is designed to handle 50 million parcels per year and help Helthjem combat labor shortages, as the design includes automatic cage tippers and singulation of parcels that make Helthjem less dependent on having a large team of operators to manually place each parcel correctly.
The Beumer system will take care of most of the handling, from the moment parcels are emptied into the system until they are sorted for further optimized distribution. The system will minimize manual handling, reducing the number of touchpoints for every parcel, which have a huge effect on the speed and accuracy of throughput. The automated system will open in the summer of 2023. It will initially have an operational capacity of 15,000 parcels per hour, with the ability to expand built into the design.
Founded in 2015, Helthjem originally specialized in newspaper distribution and built up a network that has enabled it to expand its business to cover the express delivery of parcels. It currently handles 16 million parcels per year, with the ability to offer a 12-hour delivery time to 50% of the Norwegian population. Helthjem’s expansion – driven by the increase in e-commerce that has led to a 15% market share – has necessitated this first-time automation investment, which will help maintain its service levels and improve operations.
Lars Beier Madsen, sales director for Beumer Group’s Logistic System, said, “We are pleased to join Helthjem at the beginning of their automation journey. The flexibility we offer with our systems is a perfect fit for their expanding business model. The ability to expand and adjust the system makes the investment future-proof.”
Helthjem’s Anders Lunde Angen, director for e-commerce, commented, “This is our first venture into automation after years of purely manual operation, but any concerns we had were eased by the high level of competence shown by the Beumer team. The system will enable us to expand our offering rapidly and we anticipate a reasonably fast ROI. During the Covid-19 pandemic, we saw the consumer-to-consumer sector grow by 500% and we continue to believe in the growth of e-commerce – and even more in the consumer-to-consumer business, for which we offer no-fuss delivery door-to-door by means of nothing but a handwritten code.”