Fedway Associates, Inc.

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Fedway Associates, Inc.

Executive Summary

Each day, Fedway Associates, Inc. packages, ships and delivers 40,000 cases of wine and spirits to its 7,000-plus customers. To accommodate this impressive amount of throughput and to prepare for future growth opportunities, Fedway built a new warehouse and equipped it with a high-tech conveyor system. While the new conveyor system would help improve the speed and accuracy of product movement, the system’s overall footprint would drastically limit the new building’s storage capacity. A creative mezzanine solution was needed.

The Challenge

Located in the city of Elizabeth, New Jersey, is one of the state’s largest wine and spirit distributor, Fedway Associates, Inc. With more than 40 years of experience in the food and beverage industry, Fedway has built its success on a foundation of customer service, speed, and variety. Each day, more than 40,000 cases of wine and spirits are packaged, shipped and delivered to the company’s 7,000-plus customers (comprised of restaurants, clubs, taverns and retail stores). In an effort to accommodate this impressive amount of throughput and to prepare for future growth opportunities, Fedway built a new warehouse, totaling 539,000 square feet.

In choosing equipment for the new warehouse that would support the company’s order fulfillment goals, Fedway selected a high-tech conveyor system from Century Conveyor Service, Inc., a trusted Wildeck integrator. While the new conveyor system would help improve the speed and accuracy of product movement, the system’s overall footprint would drastically limit the new building’s storage capacity. A creative solution was needed.

Our Solution

Having partnered with Wildeck on several previous occasions, Century Conveyor Service, Inc. was well versed in the benefits of Wildeck’s material handling products and suggested a Wildeck mezzanine as a potential solution. Constructed with heavy-duty steel, Wildeck mezzanines (also known as work platforms) are highly capable of safely supporting the immense weight of automation equipment (i.e. high-tech conveyor systems). Additionally, Wildeck’s unparalleled engineering capabilities ensure that their mezzanine solutions seamlessly integrate with a building’s existing layout, maximizing the total amount of available space.

Through the installation of their Wildeck mezzanine, Fedway was able to obtain several key competitive advantages for their business. Firstly, their Wildeck mezzanine added more than 106,000 square feet of workable space to the company’s new warehouse. This additional square footage was obtained at the fraction of the cost of additional building construction and capitalized upon the building’s existing utility resources (i.e. lights, heat, electricity, etc.).

Secondly, by outfitting their new warehouse with a Wildeck mezzanine, Fedway was able to consolidate their operations into a single location. Prior to the construction of the new warehouse, Fedway operated out of multiple locations. This approach created several inefficiencies as resources and merchandise were divided among different buildings. By installing a Wildeck mezzanine in their new warehouse, Fedway was able to create a centralized operation.

Thirdly, by relegating the bulky sorting and conveying equipment to the mezzanine’s elevated deck, the warehouse’s ground floor was made available for more critical and time-sensitive operations. In an industry where every minute matters, Fedway’s mezzanine solution created space for employees to more efficiently pick, pack and ship orders, helping the company maintain their position as New Jersey’s leading beverage distributor.

“Wildeck’s mezzanine solution was exactly what we needed to get our new warehouse operating at peak capacity,” said Joe McVeigh, Fedway’s Project Manager. “Ultimately, Fedway would not have been able to achieve its order fulfillment goals without our Wildeck work platform.”