Finning Opens National Distribution Center

Finning has opened its £8 million purpose-built National Distribution Center in Cannock to support its continued customer growth in after sales support and maintenance.

The warehouse facility in Cannock houses all of the dealership’s engines plus 60,000 different product lines, all of which are available for next day delivery. In addition the company has worked with their transport and logistics provider to replace eight of their existing trailers with new higher spec vehicles.     

“With over 800 service engineers in the field, it is vital that we have the best logistics in place to help them support our customers.  Rapid growth over the last few years means that we had almost reached capacity with our existing warehouse facilities,” said Finning UK and Ireland Managing Director, Neil Dickinson. “When you consider our ambitious growth plans over the next few years, it became very clear that we needed to invest in our logistics in order to maintain and further improve the levels of service that our customers have come to expect from us.”

Finning UK and Ireland will be the first Caterpillar dealer in Europe to use “Smart Sourcing” technology which allows Finning to deliver parts on time and in full to the customer’s specific requirements.

“The opening of this new distribution center follows five months of hard work by my team and CEVA Logistics, who will be managing the facility on our behalf. The transfer of approximately two millions parts items from numerous storage locations, into one central facility was achieved, whilst of course retaining the level of service that our customers expect during the transition,” said Parts Operations Manager for Finning UK and Ireland, Steve Smith. “This significant investment not only meets the needs of today, but also factors in plenty of capacity for our future growth plans.”

As well as the expected saving in energy usage from a reduced number of storage sites required and the reduction in transport movements, the design of the new facility also incorporates energy saving lighting, a biodiversity area at the rear of the site and the first electric car charging points in the company. 

To ensure business continuity in the event of a fire, the National Distribution Center has a fire protection system that features 9.5km of pipework and over 3,000 sprinkler heads covering each level of racking.

The National Distribution Center was opened by Neil Dickinson, Managing Director of Finning UK and Ireland on October 24. It houses all of the parts and engines for the company’s Equipment Solutions and Power Systems businesses.