Spar Gran Canaria opens its Logistics Centre for refrigerated and frozen products

 

The SPAR Gran Canaria supermarket chain today celebrates a major milestone in the company's 39-year history with the opening of its logistics centre dedicated exclusively to refrigerated and frozen products. The chain thus closes the circle, incorporating a third logistics centre to its facilities, adding this new Refrigerated and frozen division to the logistics centre for dry products, the chain's headquarters in the El Goro Industrial Estate, and the logistics centre dedicated only to fresh fruit and vegetables, located in Mercalaspalmas.

 

 

The new logistics platform, which SPAR Gran Canaria has launched in the El Goro Industrial Estate very close to its headquarters, is one of the company's major bets, as a result of the group's extraordinary growth in recent years. Thus, the SPAR Gran Canaria group plans to continue its physical expansion on the island in 2025, exceeding 200 points of sale spread across the island's 21 municipalities in the coming months.

 

For the SPAR Gran Canaria group, this new headquarters represents a major commitment to optimising its processes and a change in its distribution model to stores, offering a quality service with unified transport for its supermarkets. For the execution, technical and furniture conditioning, 50 suppliers have collaborated, 90% of which are Canarian suppliers.

 

Large storage capacity

 

The SPAR Gran Canaria group has made a significant financial effort in its third logistics platform on the island, located on a plot of 4.455 square metres and with two floors. The ground floor has 3.770 square metres in which there are four cold chambers, with temperatures between 0 and 4 degrees for the refrigerated area and between -18 and -25 degrees for the frozen area. The facilities on the ground floor also have a reception, toilets, dispatch offices, a freight elevator and a space dedicated to reverse logistics. On the upper floor, spread over 685 square metres, there is the office area, meeting room, changing rooms and dining room, as well as a laboratory for quality control and a large warehouse for roll containers -metal carts used for transporting goods- and isothermal containers.

 

With the opening of this new platform, the SPAR Gran Canaria group has a total of 29.600 square metres of storage and a total of 37.867 storage locations for products distributed between its three logistics centres on the island. In its main logistics centre in El Goro, the chain has 21.000 square metres and 23.500 storage locations for dry products. In the Division of fruits and vegetables Located in Mercalaspalmas, SPAR Gran Canaria has 5.000 square meters and 11.200 storage locations, which are completed with the new Refrigerated and frozen division, with 3.600 square meters of storage capacity, 1.422 refrigerated storage locations (1.685 square meters) and 1.745 frozen storage locations (1.400 square meters).

 

The new centre has six loading docks and has space for loading and unloading goods from 10 trucks, being able to meet the demand of the current 198 SPAR supermarkets in Gran Canaria with a daily service to 100 stores via 20 routes. Thus, the platform will be in operation from Monday to Friday from 6:00 a.m. to 22:00 p.m.

 

The new facilities received the first unloading of merchandise on January 20, although the official inauguration of the facilities took place today, Monday, February 10, with the attendance of the president of the SPAR Gran Canaria group, Ángel Medina and the general manager of the chain, Dunia Pérez, who presented the new facilities to guests and authorities, among whom were present the vice president of the Government of the Canary Islands, Manuel Domínguez González; the Minister of Primary Sector of the Cabildo of Gran Canaria, Miguel Hidalgo; the first deputy mayor of the municipality of Telde, María Inmaculada González Calderín; or the president of the El Goro Business Park, Francisco Pérez Ribero, among other guests and authorities.

 

Cold chain and cutting-edge technology

 

The new logistics centre has been inaugurated incorporating cutting-edge technology, which will optimise logistics management processes, such as voice picking and lithium battery machines, which are also more environmentally friendly. Its quality laboratory stands out, which will guarantee the optimal conditions of the product.

 

In order to transport refrigerated and frozen goods in the best conditions, SPAR Gran Canaria has also incorporated a new method of transporting refrigerated and frozen products using isothermal mobile containers into its supply chain. This innovative system has GPS labels for monitoring location and temperature, which guarantees the maintenance of the cold chain of refrigerated and frozen goods from their departure from the new logistics centre until their arrival at the current 198 points of sale spread across the 21 municipalities of Gran Canaria.

 

Job creation and commitment to energy efficiency

 

The new logistics centre of the Canary Islands supermarket chain has created 27 new jobs, out of the 32 that make up the human team of the new division. The group has carried out extensive specific training for the staff working in the refrigerated and frozen areas, with training in occupational risk prevention and making a significant investment in the acquisition of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) adapted to the cold conditions of the facility.

 

SPAR Gran Canaria continues to work to become a benchmark company in terms of sustainability in the Canary Islands. In keeping with this objective, the chain has opted to use refrigerant gas for its cooling system throughout its new warehouse, which is more environmentally friendly and has no effect on global warming, and to install LED lighting, which is more energy efficient. In addition, the new warehouse has 418 photovoltaic modules installed on its roof, with a total power of 240kWp, with an expected self-consumption percentage of 25%, and could reach 100% self-consumption during hours of maximum solar incidence. In this way, it will contribute to reducing the carbon footprint with a saving of 99,84 tons of CO2 per year, equivalent to the CO2 that 17.000 Canary Island pines would absorb.

 

The SPAR Gran Canaria group's commitment to its Refrigerated and frozen division It shows the chain's commitment to developing an optimized supply chain and offering a close, quality service.

 

About SPAR Gran Canaria

 

SPAR Gran Canaria is the only supermarket chain with 100% Canarian capital present in all 21 municipalities on the island. In a total of 198 establishments and through its online sales channel, SPAR Gran Canaria offers fresh, local products of the highest quality. The chain remains the sales leader in the fruit and vegetable category and a leading food company for its friendly service, quality and personalized treatment.