FDB DISTRIBUTION LIMITED

Industry:	Freight & Logistics Services
Revenues:	Under $20 Million
Employees:	Under 99

Description

FDB Distribution offers smart warehousing….

As an everyday product, paper is usually seen as relatively generic product with the only instantly obvious variants being the product from which we read or for home or office consumables. Reality, as is often the case, is far more complex.

When selecting an intelligent supplier that understands the difference between retail packs of 300 g/m2, A4, viscose/PET, and can adapt to one's needs at the drop of a hat, it becomes obvious that FDB Distribution can provide useful services and operations for mills, merchants, converters and printers alike.

FDB provided overflow storage and distribution for Cascades Paperboard, before the opening of it's own in-house warehouse in Wednesbury, West Midlands, UK. The operations followed an introduction by Norbert Dentressangle, a company with whom FDB's managing director, Francis De Beer has worked closely for over 20 years. The latter has a wide experience in this sector of paper industry, at the time he was managing a RO terminal in Northern France, specialising in forestry products, mainly paper from Scandinavia, dealing with organisations such as Stora Enso and Transfennica. Since then the industry has been transformed through mergers, concentrations and consolidations.

More recently, FDB has taken on the business for Etrinsic, a Midlands-based printer and print-management company. Two years ago, FDB acquired a 1.25 tonne capacity reel-handling clamp, which has been put to good use ever since, initially handling small consignments for cross-docking from Norbert Dentressangle's cross-border trailer fleet.

Last year, FDB were called upon by Premier Paper to warehouse all its reel stocks and perform the splitting operation for the despatch of less-than full pallet consignments where mechanical handling is required. Again, the clamp proved invaluable in taking on this business. The fact that FDB could pick, reconfigure and despatch on the same day that orders came in, to be married with the other products for next day delivery clinched the deal.

Using FDB's Radio-Controlled real-time Warehouse Management System has been invaluable in controlling rapid stock turnaround. This has also benefited J. Holm Industries in using FDB as the Central Stock point for its UK clients knowing that their reels can be fully handled, whilst having visibility of each product type in stock at any one time.

FDB can also transport consignments from single parcels to full trailer loads throughout the UK and Europe as and when required.