A-SAFE Inc. will relocate its warehouse from Elkridge, Maryland to York, Pennsylvania. The sales office will remain in Baltimore, Maryland.
The manufacturer of protective guarding for warehouses, distribution centers, manufacturing facilities, and other workplace environments, will start the transition at the turn of the year and complete it prior to vacating the old site by the end of Q1 2021. The move facilitates plans to quadruple inventory levels.
Currently, the Elkridge site has space for approx. 1,000 pallets, which will rise fourfold in York thanks to an increase from 30,000 to 56,000 square feet in addition to high efficiency racking solutions, scheduled for installation in January before the product is moved the following month. Wire-guided, narrow-aisle forklift trucks will also be a focal point of the new site.
Paul Barlow, CEO at A-SAFE Inc., said: “We will quadruple our inventory levels to aid in the lead-time reduction and some product modification capability. We will utilize multiple different efficiency options in our racking, including flow-through [first in, first out] and push back [last in, first out] types. Of course, this will be driven by ongoing growth in demand and, therefore, a higher volume of shipments from the UK; more and more containers arrive weekly.”
The warehouse will stock A-SAFE’s full range of protective guarding and safety equipment—buffers, barriers, column protectors, racking protection, etc.—all manufactured from Memaplex material, the company’s patented blend of eight materials and rubber additives that, practically, absorbs impact without incurring damage. The range is supplied directly to end-users and to the reseller/distributor marketplace.
Barlow continued: “Now is a good time due to the ending of our current lease and the business has outgrown its current space. We are also anticipating continued, aggressive growth, driven by heightened uptake in e-commerce and endeavors to improve warehouse safety generally. The combination is creating favorable market conditions and we are able to capitalize on that with a standout product range.”
“The only [negative] impact is that we are having to follow the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] COVID-19 guidelines,” he added. “We’re operating the office on a scheduled attendance system to maintain social distancing and maximum capacity rules. Practically, this means that the staff is working one week from home, and one week from the office, and vice versa.”
Barlow also revealed plans to open a warehouse in Canada in the near future.
