Herba Ricemills automates its warehouse with Mecalux

As demand for ready-to-eat meals continues to rise, rice producer Herba Ricemills is preparing to expand into Africa and the Middle East while scaling sales in its established markets. To support this growth, the company commissioned an automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) designed by Mecalux at its San José de la Rinconada plant (Seville). This site manufactures ready-to-serve cooked rice products and ships brands such as Minute to North America, Lassie to the Netherlands, Cigala to Portugal, and Brillante and Sabroz domestically.

To raise storage density and streamline movements, the company installed Mecalux’s Automated Pallet Shuttle with a stacker crane. This AS/RS has significantly expanded capacity. Moreover, it has accelerated inbound and outbound flows through an electric shuttle that autonomously loads and unloads pallets within the racking. By making better use of available space, Herba Ricemills can now 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.

Herba Ricemills’ facility also incorporates racking equipped with the semi-automated Pallet Shuttle, well-suited for working with very high volumes of same-SKU pallets. Associates supervise all these storage solutions through Mecalux’s warehouse management system.

“We aimed to take a technological leap to enhance efficiency and operational reliability. We’ve reached zero errors, reduced order fulfillment times, optimized 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.