Home › Storeganizer › Case Studies › Chalhoub Group

Chalhoub Group — from 8,611 sq ft of mezzanine shelving to 1,335 sq ft of pocket columns

A luxury-goods distribution operation more than doubled its pick rate and cut the floor area holding the same inventory by roughly 85%.

Storeganizer pockets holding bagged apparel for retail and e-commerce fulfilment

46

bays, three rows deep

828

pick modules

60–80

pick lines per hour

~30%

operational efficiency gain

The situation

Project profile
Industry Luxury goods retail distribution
Application High-SKU-count beauty, fragrance and fashion distribution
System Storeganizer high-density textile pocket columns in existing pallet rack
Source Results as reported by the operation and its Storeganizer manufacturer, KTP conTeyor

Chalhoub Group distributes luxury beauty, fragrance and fashion products across the Middle East from roughly 860,000 square feet spread over 12 sites. Its small-item inventory sat on static mezzanine shelving occupying about 8,611 square feet — a floor of shelving that pickers walked, level by level, to assemble orders of small, high-value items.

Static shelving on a mezzanine is a reasonable answer to a small-parts problem right up to the point where SKU count grows. Then it becomes two problems at once: the shelving is consuming an expensive floor, and the pick route across it is getting longer every time a product line is added.

What was installed

The mezzanine shelving was replaced with 46 Storeganizer bays, three rows deep and six columns high — 828 pick modules. Each SKU received its own pocket, and the front rows roll aside by hand so the rows behind stay reachable from the same standing position.

The relevant change is not that the inventory got smaller. It is that the walking did. Concentrating 828 pick modules into 46 bays means the same order lines are gathered from a pick face measured in feet rather than a mezzanine measured in thousands of square feet.

Diagram of the Storeganizer universal suspension rail on a pallet rack beam and columns hung up to four rows deep
Columns hang from a suspension rail built to the existing beam profile, up to four rows deep, with front rows rolling aside by hand.

Reported results

Measure Before After
Floor area holding the inventory 8,611 sq ft of static mezzanine shelving 1,335 sq ft of pocket columns
Pick rate 25–30 lines per hour 60–80 lines per hour
Operational efficiency Baseline Up approximately 30%
Staffing in the zone Baseline Two fewer full-time staff needed
Mispicks Several SKUs sharing shelf locations Fewer, with one SKU per pocket

“With static shelving we could do 25-30 picklines per hour, with Storeganizer we can do now 60-80 picklines per hour.”

— Peter Muthama, Warehouse Manager, Chalhoub

Doubling a pick rate does not come from pickers moving faster. It comes from removing the walking between picks — which is why the floor-area figure and the pick-rate figure in this case are the same fact reported two different ways.

The two fewer full-time staff is worth reading carefully. In most operations that capacity gets redeployed rather than removed, because the constraint was never the people; it was how far they had to walk to reach the next line.

High-density Storeganizer pick faces filling a run of pallet rack bays
828 pick modules across 46 bays: the same inventory gathered from a pick face measured in feet rather than a mezzanine floor.

What this means for a US operation

Every warehouse is different, and a result reported elsewhere is evidence rather than a forecast. These are the transferable parts:

  • Static shelving on expensive floor is the clearest conversion case there is. If small items are occupying a mezzanine, both the space and the travel are being paid for twice.
  • Three rows deep is normal, not aggressive. Depth becomes capacity when the front rows move by hand.
  • One SKU per pocket is the accuracy mechanism. It shows up in every case where look-alike items previously shared a location.

The measured averages behind these cases — around 40% more usable space, 42% less travel time and 26% better picking efficiency — come from independent research at the University of Leuven, Belgium (2013), comparing Storeganizer with conventional rack and shelf. To see what the same arithmetic produces in your own bay, use the Storeganizer Designer or ask us to run the numbers with you.

Why this inventory profile suits pocket columns

The transferable part of any case study is the profile, not the logo. These are the characteristics that made this operation a good candidate — and they are the ones worth checking against your own inventory before you consider a conversion.

👜

Small, high-value items

Beauty, fragrance and fashion lines are small, valuable and numerous — the profile that suffers most in locations sized for cases.

🏢

Expensive floor area

When small-item shelving occupies a mezzanine, the business is paying for the floor and for the walking across it.

⚡

Pick rate as the constraint

Doubling lines per hour came from removing travel, not from working faster.

🔍

Look-alike SKUs

Shades, sizes and variants share a shelf and get confused. One SKU per pocket ends that.

Diagram comparing a long picking route across eight shelving bays with a short route across two Storeganizer bays
The mechanism behind the pick-rate gain — fewer bays walked per order, more SKUs reachable from one position.

How a conversion like this runs

Four steps, and none of them involve construction. The sequence matters: the slotting analysis comes before the measurement, and the count comes before the order.

1

Profile the SKUs

We look at item size, stock depth and order frequency for the zone in question — the three properties that decide whether a pocket is the right home for a part.

2

Measure the bays

Inside width, inside depth, clear height and beam profile. The suspension rail is then manufactured to those dimensions.

3

Configure and count

Pocket sizes are selected per SKU group and the location count is calculated before anything is ordered.

4

Install and slot

Columns hang from existing beams in an operating warehouse — no drilling, no anchoring, no permit drawing — then stock is slotted in.

We handle all four in the United States, including the install. Because the system is maintenance free — no motors, no controls, no annual service contract — there is nothing scheduled after handover.

Questions about this project

How much floor space did Chalhoub save?
The inventory previously held on 8,611 sq ft of static mezzanine shelving now occupies about 1,335 sq ft of pocket columns.
How much did picking productivity improve?
Pick rates went from 25–30 lines per hour on static shelving to 60–80 lines per hour, with overall operational efficiency up around 30% and two fewer full-time staff needed in the zone.
How deep and high was the installation?
Forty-six bays, three rows deep and six columns high, producing 828 pick modules.
Does replacing mezzanine shelving mean removing the mezzanine?
Not necessarily. In many operations the pocket columns go into existing pallet rack and the freed mezzanine floor is redeployed — which is often more valuable than the storage it was holding.

Could your rack do this?

Tell us the bay dimensions and the SKUs giving you trouble. We will come back with a configuration, a location count and an honest view of whether a conversion is worth it.

Headquartered in Salt Lake City, UT • Serving customers nationwide
Local service areas: Salt Lake City • Provo • Ogden • Park City • St. George • Logan • Lehi • Orem