AB InBev's Magor plant

Beer giant AB InBev has opened a new automated warehouse at its largest UK brewery in Magor, Wales.

The automated warehouse features technology supplied by automated materials handling specialist Consoveyo, which is headquartered in Porto, Portugal.  

Details of the warehouse equipment are sketchy, with most of the attention focused on the huge throughput of the facility which can store 23 million pints of Stella Artois, Budweiser, Bud Light and alcohol-free Budweiser Prohibition.

It will take under a minute for robotic cranes, operating across six stories and 14.5 km of racking, to retrieve any of the stored pallets.

AB InBev says the warehouse’s technology will reduce the brewery’s carbon footprint by 605 T of CO2, equivalent to the electricity consumption of 600 homes, by reducing transportation between warehouses.

The system includes three large robotic arms speeding through racks stacked high with boxes of beers and delivering them to the waiting lorries.

A shipment can be loaded onto a truck just 20 minutes after the factory receives an order.

A brewery spokesman says despite the huge increase in efficiency, there will be no reduction in staff numbers. "The people currently deployed here driving forklifts will be used in other parts of the logistics area," he says.

Consoveyo is a system integrator for automation projects in intralogistics and supplier of automated conveyor and storage systems. Its portfolio of integrated solutions and services includes high-rack warehouses, distribution centres and order processing systems. The company specialises in in-house mechanics and hardware solutions.

Consoveyo has facilities in Portugal, Spain, Belgium, the Czech Republic, India and Singapore.