Gioseppo's shoe warehouse: 1.6 million shoes and 3,500 orders a day

Founded in 1991, Gioseppo is a Spanish family-run business devoted to the design and sale of medium- to high-end shoes for men, women and children. On account of its growth and trajectory, Gioseppo has become a member of the prestigious Leading Brands of Spain Forum, an alliance formed by the top companies and brands in their respective industries.

• Founded in: 1991
• Production volume: 3 million pairs of shoes a year
• Customers: 5,000+
• Points of sale: 10,000+
• International presence: 80+ countries

Tailoring e-commerce logistics operations to omnichannel is one of the biggest challenges facing companies nowadays. Footwear and fashion accessory manufacturer Gioseppo has modernised its logistics processes over the years to market almost 2,900 SKUs through its online shop and its own and multi-brand points of sale.

“Today, effective logistics dictates several requirements, and one of them is greater speed. A business must be able to adapt its processes to changes, which may be imposed by different channels or the needs of the customers themselves. Flexible logistics is another essential feature to cope with variable workloads, for example, unplanned online sales or marketing campaigns,” says José Miguel Navarro, Vice President of Gioseppo.

In Elche — Spain’s footwear capital and a worldwide benchmark — Gioseppo has two facilities equipped with Mecalux storage systems: a warehouse with an automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) for pallets and a facility with shelves dedicated exclusively to order picking. The result, says Navarro, could not be more satisfactory: “Currently, we have a maximum storage capacity of 1.6 million units of shoes. And during peak season, between the automated warehouse and the picking facility, we prepare an average of 3,500 orders a day.”

The AS/RS was built before the company’s move into the e-commerce sector. It had a clear twofold objective: to maximise capacity in order to house all products arriving from production, and to automate internal transfers of goods. The second facility — allocated to picking and opened a few years later — was designed to respond to Gioseppo’s omnichannel strategy. Mecalux outfitted it with storage solutions that streamline order picking, such as multi-tier shelving.

Gioseppo has had to adapt its logistics operations to market changes on an ongoing basis. Navarro says: “Between the time we opened our first automated warehouse and our latest addition, the market has evolved considerably. Now, online sales set the pace of our operations. But demand levels have increased in the other sales channels as well. Everything’s faster. Customers want optimised logistics service, more information and more options. We need to rise to the occasion and propose effective solutions to meet their needs.”

Automated warehouse: 1,000 orders a day

“Thanks to the AS/RS, we’ve stepped up our speed in storage and order fulfilment tasks. It’s also enabled us to improve the efficiency and quality of our logistics processes,” says Navarro on the benefits of automation.

With its clad-rack structure, Gioseppo’s AS/RS has a capacity for 5,844 pallets in three storage aisles measuring 79 m long. In each aisle, a stacker crane moves the unit loads from the entry point to their assigned position in the racking. The picking area is divided into six independent workstations where operators prepare around 1,000 orders a day. They pick the boxes they need from the pallet and deposit them on a box conveyor located behind them. To facilitate order processing, each pick station is equipped with a lift table. This way, pallets are positioned at the ideal height for each operator for more ergonomic picking.

Navarro explains why Gioseppo decided to invest in an automated storage system: “Sometimes, you have to make decisions to deal with specific scenarios. In our case, automation has been one of our most ambitious projects. We were in the process of expanding our business, and our future prospects included continued growth. Automation is an effective solution for managing higher workloads.”

One particular feature of Gioseppo’s clad-rack warehouse is that it was constructed in a 6-metre-deep pit. This achieved two goals: to maximise storage capacity and to reduce the impact on the landscape (the dimensions of the building could not exceed a certain height for urban planning reasons).

Gioseppo’s facility is controlled by Mecalux’s Easy WMS warehouse management system. This software is responsible for coordinating the different automated operations taking place in the logistics centre: goods-in/goods-out, storage, picking and dispatch. “Easy WMS has brought us many advantages, such as agility in accessing warehouse information, easy stock verification and the ability to locate all products in real time. We’re thrilled with all the options the software offers us.”

In addition to the AS/RS, the first facility was outfitted with a pallet live racking unit. This solution leverages the available space to store finished orders and consumer products. The pallet live racking is a high-density storage system made up of roller channels on a slight incline that allow the goods to move by gravity. This storage solution is excellent for reducing manoeuvring times and expediting order picking, thus ramping up productivity in the facility.

Picking warehouse: 2,500 orders a day

The new facility is equipped with several storage systems that streamline the preparation of 2,500 orders a day and optimise space to accommodate over 480,000 boxes of shoes.

To expand the useful surface area by 300%, Mecalux installed a mezzanine and multi-tier M7 heavy duty shelving, both spanning four levels. Each floor has a specific number of operators who pick small products.

These workers walk up and down the aisles, picking the items that make up each order directly from the shelves. The shelving design and the direct access to the goods make Gioseppo’s staff quicker, which is vital for filling online orders.

Mecalux also set up eight live storage channels with a total capacity for 1,100 pallets and five aisles of 10.5-metre-tall pallet racking. The pallet racks stand out for their strength, versatility and adaptability to any type of load. Moreover, their configuration allows for the placement of wire mesh shelves on the different levels of the racking structure to hold boxes and other small products.

Omnichannel logistics for today and tomorrow

E-commerce has revolutionised the retail and fashion industry, compelling businesses like Gioseppo to modernise their logistics operations. The company’s omnichannel strategy led to a rise in the number of daily orders, making it necessary to simplify operations to gain efficiency and satisfy both physical shops and e-customers.

“We’re currently growing and developing our B2B and B2C business. With our two logistics centres equipped by Mecalux, we can continue to implement our growth plans while maintaining our standards in terms of lead times and service quality.”

When equipping our facilities, we didn’t doubt for a moment that Mecalux would be our storage solutions provider. And the reason is none other than our fantastic relationship and the professionalism and rigour Mecalux has shown during these past ten years working together. Obviously, budget is also a major factor, and Mecalux offers the best value for money on the market.