The success story of Vet-Concept from Föhren near Trier began in a vet's waiting room when the two founders, Anita Theis and Torsten Herz, got talking to two worried dog owners about their four-legged friends. They decided to track down the original causes of the health problems. After consulting with the vet treating them, it became clear that a pet's diet could also significantly support its health. The basic idea behind Vet-Concept is to produce healthy, high-quality nutrition suitable for every four-legged friend. The company, which primarily sells its products via its own online store and has also been producing its own dry food on site since 2013, was founded in 1999. Several years, three relocations and various expansion measures later, Vet-Concept now employs around 350 people.

Grown together

BITO-Lagertechnik has accompanied the animal feed manufacturer since its foundation. The company's logistics division has developed just as dynamically as the company itself. "When the company was founded, we handled warehousing, order picking and shipping in five garages, which we had already equipped with BITO shelving and BITO live storage racks. As the company grew, we rented 2,000 square meters of storage space in various warehouses in the Föhren industrial park in 2000. When this also became too small and confusing at some point and a suitable site became available at our location, we decided to build our own logistics center in 2005," says Torsten Herz, co-owner and Managing Director of Vet-Concept, describing the company's development. The original 300 square meters eventually became 8,000 square meters of storage and order picking space.

BITO pallet racks were added to the shelving racks and unit load flow racks, and a high-bay warehouse was built to store heavy bags of pet food and cans of wet food on Euro pallets and to pick the goods directly from the pallet racks. In 2020, the company added another 8,000 square meter hall to the logistics area with an automated system for storing and picking small parts. BITO KLT and BITO XL containers of various sizes are used both for storage and in the picking area. Vet-Concept now uses almost the entire BITO-Lagertechnik product portfolio. Peter Schneider, Area Sales Manager BITO-Lagertechnik: "Since Vet-Concept was founded, we have always been able to find the best solution for the respective tasks in close cooperation with the customer. For example, we have enlarged our KLT containers from the original size of 400 x 600 mm to 800 x 600 mm so that the box fits the size of the feed sacks. We were also able to work closely with the conveyor technology supplier (psb from Pirmasens) to develop tailor-made solutions for the different expansion stages of the picking systems."

Plenty of space for a tidy warehouse

The finished products - from pet food such as dry food, wet food and nutritional supplements to care products and accessories as well as operating supplies, auxiliary materials and empty containers - are stored in the warehouse area. High hygiene standards must be guaranteed and the best-before date of the perishable goods must always be kept in view. The storage equipment must be suitable for large weights, such as feed bags or canned wet feed, and for small items, such as chews and accessories. Vet-Concept also ensures that all items are permanently almost 100 percent available.

The company's product range has proven itself over the years. Around 800 items are always the same, so the warehouse is very clearly structured and the products are assigned to fixed storage locations. The heavy animal feed bags and canned food are stored in pallet racks with a total of around 6,000 storage locations. BITO pallet flow racking systems are used for storage on the upper levels. The upper area is used for replenishment and buffer storage, while the lower level is generally set up as a picking zone. As the pet food products have an expiry date, Vet-Concept stores the products both in the pallet racks and in the live storage racks according to the first-in-first-out principle. In the pallet warehouse, the goods are either picked directly from the lower levels of the pallet racks or from unit load flow racks located on the lower pallet rack level, depending on their weight. Smaller containers are pre-picked into BITO small parts containers. The approximately 400 different small parts items are stored in the automated small parts warehouse and are made available for picking from there fully automatically.

High degree of standardization

It is not only the consistent product range that enables Vet-Concept to guarantee a high degree of standardized processes. Standardization also ensures efficient workflows in the automated warehouse. The goods are stored there exclusively in 400 × 600 mm cartons and the suppliers are also only allowed to deliver their products in this packaging unit so that they can be stored there directly without further repackaging. The large logistics hall is clearly divided into two areas: The goods are stored in the rear area and picking takes place in the front area. A picking tunnel separates the storage area from the picking area and connects the two areas at the same time. This saves space and ensures short distances between the two areas.

Order picking at Vet-Concept is completely paperless using pick-by-light. After orders are received, they are digitally forwarded to the warehouse and each order has a code. The goods are pre-picked and then made available to the individual "stations" via BITO flow racks and BITO pallet racks. There, the employee receives electronic information about which product needs to be picked into which box for each order. The parcels are transported to the stations and on to dispatch via roller conveyors at an ergonomic working height.

With the well-structured warehouse layout and standardized processes, Vet-Concept is able to design all processes efficiently, keep everything in view and in its place and process customer orders as quickly as possible. In collaboration with BITO-Lagertechnik, the pet food manufacturer's logistics area was also planned and designed with enough buffer space to allow the company to continue to grow without the need for immediate expansion or conversion.