Rossignol Group’s omnichannel warehouse for sporting goods in France

Winter sports products and equipment

Rossignol Group is a company with more than a century of experience in the design and manufacture of winter sporting goods, such as: skis, snowboards or clothing and accessories (pants, footwear, backpacks, jackets, etc.). Its headquarters is located in Grenoble, in the heart of the French Alps. Today, it carries a very wide range of brands: ROSSIGNOL (the hallmark winter sports brand), DYNASTAR (skis), LANGE (ski boots), LOOK (bindings), KERMA (ski poles), TIME (high-end road bikes) and FELT (road, trail and mountain bikes), RAIDLIGHT and VERTICAL (equipment for trail running and climbing), RISPORT (ice skates), and DALE OF NORWAY (high-quality pure wool clothing).

Rossignol Group’s omnichannel strategy

The Rossignol Group has an 8.89 acre warehouse in Saint-Étienne-de-Saint-Geoirs, near Grenoble (France). From here, it supplies points of sale, distributors around the globe and users who make purchases through the website.

The company needed its facilities to be omnichannel ready to apply this relevant strategy in its business. This comprises the integration of all a brand’s sales channels to offer consumers a more satisfying user experience. In practice, this translates into the highly accelerated preparation of a large volume of orders. Digital customers are instant gratification shoppers and want to be served how, where and when they decide works for them. Depending on the time of year, the Rossignol Group might prepare up to 5,000 highly diverse orders each day.

Agility is a priority to deal with this volume of demand efficiently. In the warehouse, numerous tasks must be carried out as quickly as possible. In very short times, receipt of goods from suppliers, storage, preparation of orders, distribution and delivery to customers must all happen.

“When it came to equipping the warehouse, we turned to Interlake Mecalux because, from the outset, they showed great interest in our project and in solving our needs,” explains Christian Fiquet, logistics manager for the Rossignol Group. The French company planned to complete this project during the least busy period, because it wanted to renovate its logistics without ever interrupting customer care. According to Christian Fiquet, “our impression was that Interlake Mecalux was the best company to meet the deadlines. Plus, we saw that the value for money in its proposal hit the right note.”

Earthquake-proof racking

The warehouse is located in a level 3 earthquake zone, which means the racks are reinforced to absorb all the forces generated by tremors.

The racks have been designed and built based on the EN 16681 European standard (Steel static storage systems. Adjustable pallet racking systems. Principles for seismic design).

According to this standard, the rack structure must meet specific degrees of both strength and ductility to withstand seismic action without local or general collapse occurring. All of these maintain the racks integrity and residual load capacity after a seismic event.

Interlake Mecalux generates a 3D model of the structure using finite element programs. A data set is entered, such as the material type, the profile sizes, the design spectrum or the unit load characteristics, among others. The structural simulation helps to check the strength of the racks during an earthquake.

Warehouse dedicated to order picking (textiles)

“The solution was very well thought out and completely adapted to our requirements,” admits Christian Fiquet. “The Mecalux technical team answered all our questions and shared their expertise and experience, meaning we could improve logistics,” he adds.

Each level of the mezzanine is meant for a specific product type and has a specific number of pickers. Thus, maximum productivity is achieved in the installation and order preparation.

On each one of these three levels, operators walk up and down the aisles collecting the products for each order directly from the shelves. Up to a dozen orders can be put together at once during the same pick route.

The racks’ design also helps operators to be more “pick productive”. By offering direct access to the goods, operators can easily handle the boxes.

Conveyors have been installed on each floor so that operators can deposit orders. The boxes are automatically moved to the end of the conveyor circuit, where a lift distributes them to the different levels, ending up at the conveyor that connects to the consolidation and packaging area.

Christian Fiquet - Logistics Director at Rossignol
“The mezzanine has been up and running for many months and, at this point, we can say that it is working at peak performance. The installation works perfectly and operators prepare a multitude of orders daily. We are completely satisfied with the results.”

Advantages for Rossignol Group

• Efficient omnichannel warehouse: the mezzanine is designed so operators can prep up to 5,000 orders daily, which are then distributed to customers worldwide.
• Fast order picking system: the conveyor circuit brings a lot of speed to the flow of goods and, ultimately, to order picking.
• Flexibility in picking: product distribution over the three floors and multiple picking stations give the Rossignol Group the flexibility it needs to adapt its logistics activity to order volumes.