Altadis Cantabria cigars and cigarettes Distribution Centre

The Altadis Group, created throught the merger of Seita and Tabacalera, is one of the leading players in the European tobacco market as well as in the wholesale distribution. Altadis holds a key leader position in the main three areas of its activity: cigarettes, cigars and logistic.

It holds the third place in Western Europe cigarettes, first in the world cigars, and is one of the foremost distributors to convenience outlets in Southern Europe.

In 2001, due to the companies merger, its cigars distribution center moved to the new plant in Cantabria. GD Convey was selected to carry out the complete automation of the new plant, which included cartons reception from the packaging lines, delivered on the palletising area, automatic palletising of carton and the wrapping of finished pallets.

The selected solution gathers the following subsystems:
· Carton reception, delivered to the first level by belt conveyors from the production area.
· Automatic palletising area, with one gantry robot ABB IRB-840.
· Pallets outlet area by shuttle car, one automatic wrapping machine and a manual palletising area with 4 stations.

It has been implemented a flow control system and a palletising management software with the possibility of conforming varied mosaics made with ConveyPal, also developed by GD Convey.
Results obtained with this new plant were: reach an increasing production, flexibility, plant organization, user ergonomical conditions, production control and product tracking in the whole plant.