'These mobile racks never break down'

Logistics service provider Vice Versa has 25 cold stores in Oss with almost 70,000 storage locations. The majority of these have been equipped with mobile racking by SSI SCHAEFER. With this, co-owner Guus van den Boogaard from Vice Versa consciously opts for quality. "We cannot sell our customers no. And these mobile shelving units never break down."

In 1985, Tonnie van den Boogaard bought his first van. It marked the start of Vice Versa, a logistics service provider that today plays a key role in the food industry. "Our primary customers are meat processors, who purchase meat from deboners and deliver it to food retailers and food service companies. We pick up crates of fresh meat from the deboners and freeze them. We store the pallets of meat in one of our freezer cells until the meat processor calls them off. When that happens, we temper the meat and transport it to the meat processor. We take back the crates of finished products, after which we package them and store them again," says Guus van den Boogaard, son of Tonnie and co-owner of Vice Versa. "We have enough stock in our freezer cells to supply the food retail and food service channel with meat, bread, ice cream and vegetables for six weeks."

Unburdening as much as possible

The numbers are impressive. Vice Versa has six shock freezers in Oss with space for 1,200 pallets. At a temperature of -40 degrees and a wind speed of 100 kilometers per hour, the logistics provider needs only 48 hours to freeze 2 million kilograms of meat. "Only at a temperature of -40 degrees does the cold penetrate to the core of the meat fast enough," knows Van den Boogaard, who is responsible for technology and operations within the family business. 

In addition, Vice Versa has three of its own crate washing machines for cleaning 40,000 crates a day. "Before the product is in the supermarket, we have already washed each crate three times," Van den Boogaard explains. "We want to unburden our customers as much as possible so they can concentrate on the work they are good at: cutting and processing meat into spare ribs, hamburgers, chicken nuggets and other finished products."

Eye for detail and quality

Vice Versa tries to be as self-sufficient as possible. The family business has its own workshop, car wash and filling station for its fleet of seventy vehicles. Its own technical service department ensures that the refrigeration plants, crate washing machines and reach trucks are used optimally. "We like this work," says Van den Boogaard, who, together with his brother Koen and sister Mireille, has taken over daily management from father Tonnie. "We do what the customer asks, fulfill agreements and are flexible. And the money we earn from that, we put back into the business."

The passion for the work is evident in the knowledge, experience and attention to detail. For example, if a meat processor wants to make minced meat, the temperature of the meat is reduced from -20 to -9 degrees in a Vice Versa tempering cell. No degree lower, because then the meat will be too hard for the meat processor's mincer. No degree higher, either, because then the meat becomes too unctuous to pack neatly. "Thus, each meat has its own structure and its own specifications," Van den Boogaard knows.  

In addition to an eye for detail, Vice Versa also has an eye for quality. Most finished products are delivered in full pallets, but customers can also order at box level. For this purpose, Vice Versa has set up an order picking process. "This takes place in a freezer cell at -20 degrees, so that the cold chain remains intact as much as possible and quality is guaranteed."

Doubling storage capacity

That the strategy is paying off is evidenced by Vice Versa's rapid growth. In 2004, the company put its first freezer cell into operation. There are now 25 freezer cells in Oss with a total storage capacity of 65,000 to 70,000 pallets. These are not only filled with meat - about twenty percent of the stock consists of other frozen products such as ice cream, bread, pizzas vegetables and a little bit of pharma from MSD Biotech Oss. Van den Boogaard: "We have grown completely autonomously. Over the years, we have kept adding freezer cells to meet the growing demand of our customers."

The first freezer cells were set up with standard pallet racks. Those are still in use, Van den Boogaard emphasizes. "We want to keep it that way. Some pallets are only in storage for a few hours before they have to be transported. When products have such a high turnover rate, it's nice that we can get them in and out quickly."

As the need for storage capacity increased, a search for more compact storage methods began. "We want to make the best possible use of a cold store. Not only because of storage capacity, but also because of energy consumption. The higher the storage density, the less air we need to cool and the greater the savings in energy costs. That's why we ended up with mobile shelving, so we only need one aisle per freezer cell. This allows us to virtually double the storage capacity."

"They never break down."

The search for mobile shelving ended with SSI SCHAEFER, which offered the best value for money. Van den Boogaard is particularly impressed with the quality of the drive technology. When a rack including pallets is moved, a total weight of 300 tons or more is moved. That requires a solid mobile base that does not flex and a controlled drive that prevents skewing. "We have been using the mobile racking systems from SSI SCHAEFER for seventeen years without any problems. They simply never break down. If we ever have problems, it is due to our own mistakes. For example, because we drive into them with a reach truck."

High quality is extremely important to Vice Versa. "We can't sell our customers no. If we cannot supply a supermarket chain with hamburgers, they will go to the competitor," explains Van den Boogaard. "This is why we have agreed a full-service contract with SSI SCHAEFER with a response time of two hours. Fortunately, we hardly ever need to call on this. We have our own stock of spare parts and a technical service department that can solve most malfunctions ourselves. Once a year, a maintenance team from SSI SCHAEFER comes to inspect everything and replace worn parts."

Safe and easy to use

The mobile racks are easy to use. Reach truck drivers can use a remote control to open an aisle from their heated cab. Usually, however, they get out and press the button on the rack. "Of course, the racks are equipped with safety sensors. If an employee walks down the aisle, they don't move. If they do, the employee can use a foot to operate the emergency stop. Still, we ask our drivers to double-check with their own eyes that the aisle is actually empty. We cannot rely on the technology always working." said Van den Boogaard.

The mobile racks feature more safety measures. For example, each mobile base is equipped with rubbers, which ensure that there is always some clearance between the racks. To prevent the plastic pallets from sliding and sliding off the steel girders, all storage locations are equipped with grid floors. Travel speed is limited to four meters per second: slow enough to prevent falling loads and fast enough to operate efficiently. "Opening an aisle takes a minute at most. As a result, our reach truck drivers never have to wait. As they move a pallet away, the next aisle opens," says Van den Boogaard, who says he chose extra-wide aisles. "Usually aisles are about 3.5 meters wide. To give our drivers enough room to maneuver, we opted for a width of 4.2 meters. Especially with mobile racking, collision damage is out of the question."

Only SSI SCHAEFER

For the first freezer cabinets with mobile racking, SSI SCHAEFER only supplied the mobile base. The racking structure was supplied by a local racking supplier with whom Vice Versa had been doing business for many years. When this supplier stopped doing business, Van den Boogaard decided to purchase the racking from SSI SCHAEFER. A total of 14 freezer units were built in five phases. "One time we cheated and succumbed to the low offer from other provider, but those mobile racks only caused problems. Since then, we have only chosen SSI SCHAEFER," says
Van den Boogaard, 

The final phase took place in 2023: a 1,500-square-meter cold store with 5,500 storage locations. The installation of the mobile racks presented challenges. "We commissioned this in 2021: in the middle of the corona era when SSI SCHAEFER was suffering from high steel prices and lack of electronic components like everyone else. We needed the freezer cell for a customer who was looking for storage space for four million frikandells. When its production started, the freezer cell was not yet in use. Because we continued to communicate well with each other, the delivery problems were resolved satisfactorily and we still managed to get all the frikandells into storage."

Staying flexible

Van den Boogaard looks back on the many years of cooperation with satisfaction. SSI SCHAEFER has proved to be a reliable partner with whom it is easy to work. "They think along with us and answer questions quickly. The lines of communication are short. And like us, they are not necessarily the cheapest but they are the best".

When the next cold store will rise, Van den Boogaard cannot yet say. The Vice Versa site on the Kanaalstraat in Oss has no more room for expansion. "One thing is certain: when we expand, we will continue to rely on mobile racking. Of course other solutions are conceivable such as a fully automated storage system, but we would like to remain flexible. This is possible with the mobile shelving from SSI SCHAEFER."