Pep expands storage facilities

DURBAN — The R270m investment by Pep Stores into a 65000m² warehouse facility in Prospecton, south of Durban, doubled the clothing group’s warehousing space in KwaZulu-Natal.

It also reflected the substantial sales increase over the past four years, planning and distribution director Corne Klem said at the roof-wetting last week.

The investment follows the opening of a 40000m² distribution facility in Johannesburg last month and plans to double the Cape Town facility in the next 18 months, Klem said.

“We are positive about the future and management believes it can reduce stock and improve service levels to stores if it buffers more stock in the warehouses.”

Developer Collins Property director Murray Collins said the investment created the largest warehousing facility in Durban and effectively consolidated three of Pep’s existing warehouse plants into a single entity.

The conclusion of a 15-year lease with Collins Property also signalled “substantial commitment to Durban” and the local market.

Klem said Prospecton site was the only available flat piece of land where a facility of this magnitude could be constructed within the free delivery zone from the airport and with sound access to major transport routes.

The warehouse would pioneer several philosophical changes regarding Pep’s stock-holding, including the centralisation of replenishment product stock and the increase in the stock buffer to accommodate the vagrancies in supply and demand.

The facility required 1300 tons of steel in the structure and 256000 bags of cement for the floor. It will have 2400 light fittings and, Klem said, the number of trucks leaving the facility in the next year would “circumnavigate the earth 140 times”.