23.08.2017

Bockholdt

STILL’s EXV and mezzanine floor in use at Bockholdt

Challenges: Storage of supplies in a limited space and ensuring quick access

Solution: Initial material flow analysis and planning of a steel mezzanine with transferstation.

STILL products: STILL racks and EXV 14 pallet stacker.

Even customers who only need small-scale solutions can rely on STILL for good service and advice, as in the case of the cleaning firm ‘Bockholdt’.

A modern Hanseatic family business, with over 6000 employees in 14 branches, Bockholdt is one of the largest employers in northern Germany. The company has been providing successful ‘facilities and industrial services’ for over 55 years. Alongside caretaker services and pest control, their main business focus is on cleaning services. These can be as varied as blasting processes involving dry ice, robotised cleaning of ventilation systems, using climbing teams to clean solar and wind power installations, or even cleaning hospitals and operation theatres, whereby their services meet the strictest environmental and ISO-certification standards.

Individual industry services

Thanks to years of experience, Bockholdt is familiar with the varied demands of the different industry sectors, and offers individually tailored service packages. For its sophisticated fleet and equipment, the company requires decentralised warehouses with custom-fit storage and transport solutions. Markus Roth, head of Bockholdt’s Hamburg branch says, “The challenge in Hamburg was how to accommodate all the varying supplies needed for our building cleaning services, and winter services, in a space that was limited to around 250 square metres, while at the same time ensuring we could still access all the materials quickly, for example, in case of cold, wintry weather and outbreaks of snow, or time-critical cleaning projects.”

Outstanding all-round support

STILL’s EXV in use at the Bockholdt site. The high-lift pallet truck is able to deliver its full lifting capacity even in a space barely three metres high: the STILL EXV.

Roth developed a concept, along with STILL, allowing for efficient storage utilisation in both summer and winter, which was then put into practice within two months. “We received great all-round support from STILL, and enjoyed a good partnership with them”, says Roth, “even though in this case we only needed a relatively small-scale logistics solution.” Pallets of gritting salt and granulated material with a maximum weight of up to 1200 kg needed to be stored in an outdoor area, and promptly made available for loading at the onset of wintry weather. The warehouse was equipped with a custom-fit STILL steel platform with a transfer station. The loading and unloading of the cleaning and gritting machinery, as well as snow shovels, is made possible by a modern pallet stacker, STILL’s EXV 14, despite door clearance heights of just 2090 mm.

While working at the mezzanine, the EXV 14 is able to fully demonstrate its qualities as one of the strongest weightlifters on the market, operating at the 2.85-metre upper mezzanine edge with its full load capacity of 1400 kg. A decisive factor when opting for STILL was that the high-quality equipment could be lifted reliably, safely and with millimetre precision, with the pallet stacker able to be operated intuitively at all times.

Partnership as the secret to success

Markus Roth says, “Despite our size, we do not operate as an anonymous group, but rather as a team. And in this team every person counts. Only with the appropriate teamwork will we be able to achieve success. This was also the secret to our successful partnership and collaboration with STILL. Of course the yearly inspections of the racks and the comprehensive service also have a role to play.”

High lift pallet truck EXV 14