Rice producer Herba Ricemills, a unit of Ebro Foods, is preparing to expand into Africa and the Middle East while growing sales in its existing markets, as demand for ready meals continues to climb.
To support that growth, the company has commissioned an automated storage and retrieval system designed by Mecalux at its plant in San José de la Rinconada, Spain. The facility manufactures ready-to-serve cooked rice products and ships brands including Minute to North America, Lassie to the Netherlands, Cigala to Portugal, and Brillante and Sabroz domestically.
To increase storage density and streamline internal movements, Herba Ricemills installed Mecalux’s Automated Pallet Shuttle system alongside a stacker crane. The system has significantly expanded the plant’s capacity while accelerating inbound and outbound flows through an electric shuttle that autonomously loads and unloads pallets within the racking. The improved use of available space now allows the company to store up to 5,400 pallets.
“Ebro Foods’ international, multi-brand strategy involves a high number of SKUs, each with a substantial volume. This scenario clearly warranted the implementation of an AS/RS,” says Juan Pedro Álvarez, Director of Ebro Foods’ Ready to Serve division in Andalusia.
The San José de la Rinconada facility also includes racking equipped with a semi-automated Pallet Shuttle, a setup suited to handling very high volumes of pallets carrying the same SKU. Operators oversee all of the site’s storage solutions through Mecalux’s warehouse management software.
“We aimed to take a technological leap to enhance efficiency and operational reliability. We’ve reached zero errors, reduced order fulfilment times, optimised space and now maintain a steady material flow,” says Manuel Matías Martínez, Head of Warehousing and Logistics Management at Herba Ricemills’ San José de la Rinconada facility.
The company reports that the new system has lifted productivity by 25%.
Herba Ricemills’ products reach millions of kitchens worldwide. Founded in the province of Seville, the company has cultivated rice in the Guadalquivir marshlands since the 1950s. It joined the multinational Ebro Group—a global leader in the rice industry and Spain’s largest food company—in 1989. At its San José de la Rinconada plant, Herba Ricemills produces its domestic brands Brillante and Sabroz, along with export brands such as Cigala for Portugal, Minute for the US and Lassie for the Dutch market.
Find out more at: https://www.herba.es