A-SAFE to quadruple inventory at new warehouse

A-SAFE Inc will relocate its warehouse from Elkridge, Maryland to York, Pennsylvania. The sales office will remain in Baltimore, Maryland.

The manufacturer of protective guarding for warehouses, distribution centres, manufacturing facilities and other workplace environments, will start the transition at the turn of the year and compete it prior to vacating the old site by the end of Q1 2021. The move facilitates plans to quadruple inventory levels.

Currently, the Elkridge site has space for approx. 1000 pallets, which will rise fourfold in York thanks to an increase from 30,000 to 56,000sqft in addition to high efficiency racking solutions, scheduled for installation in January before product is moved the following month. Wire-guided, arrow-aisle forklift trucks will also be a focal point of the new site.

Paul Barlow, CEO at A-SAFE, said, “We will quadruple our inventory levels to aid in lead-time reduction and some product modification capability. We will utilize multiple different efficiency options in our racking, including flow through [first in, first out] and push back [last in, first out] types. Of course, this will be driven by ongoing growth in demand and, therefore, higher volume of shipments from the UK; more and more containers arrive weekly.”

The warehouse will stock A-SAFE’s full range of protective guarding and safety equipment – buffers, barriers, column protectors, racking protection, etc – all manufactured from Memaplex material, the company’s patented blend of eight materials and rubber additives that, absorbs impact without incurring damage. The range is supplied directly to end users and to the reseller/distributor marketplace.

Barlow said, “Now is a good time due to the ending of our current lease and the business has outgrown its current space. We are also anticipating continued, aggressive growth, driven by heightened uptake in ecommerce and endeavours to improve warehouse safety generally. The combination is creating favourable market conditions and we are able to capitalise on that with a standout product range.”

“The only [negative] impact is that we are having to follow CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] Covid guidelines,” he added. “We’re operating the office on a scheduled attendance system to maintain social distancing and maximum capacity rules. Practically, this means that staff are working one week from home, and one week from the office, and vice versa.”

Barlow also revealed plans to open a warehouse in Canada in the near future.