Meet Corby logistics warehouse giant's engineering team

Corby’s £60m, 750,000 sq ft third-party logistics mega hub has taken on a team of six in-house specialists engineering specialists tot maintain the site’s £11m automation system.

Europa Warehouse based at Midlands Logistics Park in Corby, employs 300 staff and is Europa’s largest and most high-tech facility.

All new recruits report to Aaron Crosby, who joined Europa Warehouse in 2021 as senior engineer.

He said: “Europa Warehouse has been keen to embrace the very latest technology in order to set the pace in our market.

“Our goal is to build a best-in-class engineering department, which can not only plan the correct maintenance schedules to keep production flowing, but also identify areas for improvement.

“We want to ensure our operations are as slick as possible, and we have the ability, through our in-built monitoring tool, to detect and resolve even the smallest of process glitches immediately.

“Corby’s ambition is to deliver amazing levels of customer service, and now we now have a team of experts in place who specialise in engineering simpler, smarter systems that deliver the right results. It’s great to have them on board.”

Mr Crosby has played a pivotal role in the installation and commissioning phases and following his recent promotion to engineering manager, he is now responsible for leading the on-site engineering team.

Specialist 3PL provider – part of the pioneering firm Europa Worldwide Group – continues to be at the forefront of the transport and logistics sector, with its latest investment in technical team talent at Corby.

Aaron Haggart, Ryan Incles, Kyle Watt and Darren Curtis join the business as engineers and will have responsibility for looking after the automation system, which is at the heart of the depot.

Ryan Appleton, Eric Zsugyo, and Adam Avery have also been employed as technical operators. Their role is to take charge of the various machines which form part of the process, re-stocking them with the required consumables which feed the main system.

Candidates had to demonstrate their technical knowledge and practical capabilities during the interview process, meaning the team now boasts a comprehensive skill set in the field of mechatronics.

Construction at the Corby site was completed at the height of the global pandemic and staff celebrated its first birthday last June.

The UK logistics sector has boomed with the rise in online shopping for nearly every product, and there are no signs of this letting up.

At the Europa warehouse, the bespoke computerised system has increased pick rates per hour working on shelves reaching seven-levels high with secure storage aisles.

The company has contracts with blue-chip brands that have chosen to use the warehouse division because outsourcing their 'fulfilment' offers full stock traceability and is hugely cost-effective.

Jon Margetts, Europa’s head of facilities and health & safety, added: “This is such an exciting time for Europa Warehouse, as we seek to make our automation system and processes bigger and better in terms of enhanced optimisation and overall efficiency.

“The introduction of the computerised storage and retrieval system has enabled Europa to vastly improve output across the Warehouse, because it runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week in response to the growing trend for next day deliveries.

“We’re delighted to welcome on board our new engineers who will enable the business to remain at the cutting edge of system technologies.

“Setting the pace in the marketplace through innovation and the continued investment in our people is incredibly important at this time of significant growth across the 3pl sector.”