Major chocolate manufacturer, Barry Callebaut, required a range of safety solutions to protect employees, assets and the infrastructure of their impressive new facility, “The Barry Callebaut Chocolate Box”, which is the largest chocolate warehouse in the world.
A-SAFE and Barry Callebaut
A long-standing relationship between the two companies has resulted in the new installation. Numerous A-SAFE polymer systems have been implemented across the site. The goal was to protect the people, infrastructure, and assets of the Barry Callebaut Group.
Headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, the Barry Callebaut Group is the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products, mastering every step in the value chain from the sourcing of raw materials to the production of the finest chocolates.
With more than 175 years of heritage, The Barry Callebaut Group has 66 factories worldwide, with more than 13,000 colleagues in 40 countries, turning over 8 billion€ with chocolate sales of 2.3m tonnes. More than 25% of the chocolate products eaten are from the Barry Callebaut facility. They’ve mastered every step from the sourcing of the raw materials to the production of the finest quality goods.
In October 2021, Barry Callebaut opened its new global distribution center in Lokeren, Belgium. Known as ‘The Chocolate Box’ this 60,000m² building is the world’s largest chocolate warehouse. It’s 40m high with 125,000 pallet space.
The Barry Callebaut Chocolate Box is not only the world’s largest chocolate warehouse but also the most sustainable and is the first building in the Benelux with a “BREEAM Outstanding” certification – the highest standard in sustainable logistics. The building is fully energy-positive, as it can completely fulfil its own energy consumption.
The challenge
To protect the structural elements of Barry Callebaut’s industry-leading facilities, and the assets within and reduce accident risks to employees, it was essential that the protection did not impact but enhanced the efficiency and flow of the warehouse.
Finding a supplier that could produce the large quantity of safety protection that the facility needed due to its impressive size in sufficient timescales. In addition, the products should be tested to a high standard and provide a smooth installation plan that would not disrupt the ongoing work within the warehouse.
During the rigorous search process for providers of this type of solution, it was clear that Barry Callebaut’s facility required first-rate protection and high attention to the way of working, which A-SAFE has provided multiple times for the chocolate giant, in various locations.
How did we rise to the challenge?
After an in-depth survey of the facilities and closely liaising with Barry Callebaut representatives, A-SAFE identified a range of safety solutions to protect the structure, assets, and most importantly, the staff who will be working in this large facility.
The close relationship between the two teams gave an insight into how Barry Callebaut works—and they were able to provide a tailored suite of safety products for both internal and external areas that protected and improved efficiency.
A selection of safety solutions was introduced to the facility to protect members of staff. This included the iFlex Bollards and the eFlex Pedestrian 3 Rail Barriers. Designed and manufactured with innovative methods, these barriers are made to withstand impacts without causing structural damage to the concrete flooring unlike alternative solutions – an important factor to maintain the structure of the brand-new facility.
In addition, a variety of products were provided to protect the structure of the world’s largest chocolate distribution centre with iFlex Height Restrictors and FlexiShield Column Guards.
Furthermore, racking protection was supplied to protect the 125,000 pallet space in the form of iFlex Single RackEnd Barriers which are designed to offer defense against impact damage to racking within aisles and can result in the collapse of complete racking structures.
The result
The risk of accident or damage has been greatly reduced, enhancing Barry Callebaut’s reputation for safety and employee care.
The close work between both teams resulted in a range of A-SAFE solutions being implemented to protect the world-class distribution facilities structure, their people and assets.
Using a tailored suite of innovative safety products, the employees of Barry Callebaut are segregated from moving vehicles which keeps them safe from harm and reduces the risk of serious accidents and fatalities occurring.
The facilities team can also have peace of mind that if there are impacts to the protection in place, the cost of concrete damage is reduced.
Video Link: https://youtu.be/JstM0aKoxZs
