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Vertical Storage Solutions in Salt Lake City

Material Handling USA is headquartered in Salt Lake City. From our office at 1271 E 3900 S we design, deliver, install, and service Vidir vertical carousels, vertical lift modules, and hospital bed lifts across the Salt Lake Valley — usually with a same-day or next-day site visit.

Vidir vertical carousel storage system supplied and installed in Salt Lake City

Local

Salt Lake City headquarters

50–80%

Floor space recovered

Same day

Site visits across the valley

25+ yrs

Serving Utah businesses

Salt Lake City MarketWhat Vertical Storage IsSystem TypesCarousel vs. VLMThe ROI CaseSite RequirementsService AreasProcessFAQs

Why Salt Lake City Operations Are Looking Up

Salt Lake City industrial real estate has tightened steadily as the Wasatch Front has grown. Vacancy along the airport corridor and out toward the Point of the Mountain is low, lease rates have climbed, and the buildings that do come available are frequently the wrong shape for the operation that needs them. Vertical storage answers that by taking the inventory problem off the floor plan entirely.

Where we see this most often in the Salt Lake Valley:

  • Airport and I-215 industrial corridor — distribution and third-party logistics operations where every pallet position is contested
  • Point of the Mountain — technology, medical device, and light manufacturing operations in newer buildings with high clear height that goes unused
  • West Valley City and the west side — established manufacturing and fabrication shops storing sheet metal, tooling, and long material
  • Downtown and the University district — hospitals, research labs, and institutional facilities with severe space constraints and no expansion option
  • Sandy, Draper, and the south valley — automotive dealerships and service operations with tire and parts storage problems
Vidir vertical carousel installed on a manufacturing floor near Salt Lake City reclaiming floor space
The inventory goes up, and the floor plan gets its space back.

Run the lease-rate math first

Take the floor area your current storage occupies, estimate what a vertical system would free up — typically 50 to 80 percent for the same inventory — and multiply by your annual cost per square foot in the Salt Lake Valley. That number is usually larger than people expect, and it is before you count the labor and accuracy improvements.

Operator access point of a Vidir vertical carousel delivering a lit carrier at waist height
Goods-to-person: the machine travels, the operator does not.

Goods to Person, Not Person to Goods

Conventional storage makes the operator do the travelling. They walk the aisle, find the location, climb if it is high, search the shelf, and walk back. Most of that time is not picking — it is travel and search.

Vertical storage inverts it. Inventory lives on carriers or trays inside an enclosed vertical unit. The operator requests an item, the machine rotates or extracts, and the item arrives at an ergonomic working height at a single access opening. The operator never walks the aisle, never climbs, and never searches.

Three things follow from that, and all three usually matter more than the storage density itself:

Floor area returns. A footprint that was aisles and shelving becomes one enclosed unit using the full clear height of the building.

Labor drops. Travel and search time largely disappear, so one operator covers what previously took several.

Accuracy improves and shrink falls. Every item has a controlled location behind a closed door, with software directing every transaction.

Systems We Install in Salt Lake City

Vidir builds vertical storage for specific product types rather than one generic machine, which is why the equipment we quote in the Salt Lake Valley varies so much by industry.

Technician pulling a tire from a Vidir tire carousel at a dealership service bayTire carouselsDealerships and tire operations along State Street, 700 East, and the I-15 corridor. A tire carousel replaces a wall of loose tire racking with a single enclosed footprint and removes the ladder work entirely.
Vidir wire and cable carousel holding color-coded wire spools ready to dispenseHospital bed liftsUniversity of Utah Hospital, Intermountain Medical Center, and clinics across the valley. Bed lifts store beds and stretchers vertically, clearing corridors that codes require to stay clear.
Vidir hospital Bedlift storing hospital beds and stretchers vertically in a corridorWire and cable carouselsElectrical distributors and contractors in the industrial corridors. Spooled wire stored vertically and dispensed at working height instead of wrestled off a floor rack.
Vidir vertical lift module with an open access bay and operator touchscreenVertical lift modulesMetal fabrication and manufacturing shops around West Valley and the west side, storing sheet stock, tooling, dies, and small parts in a fraction of the floor area.
Vidir pan and shelving carousel loaded with bins and cartons on rotating carriersPan and shelving carouselsDistribution and fulfillment operations near the airport, where labor cost per pick and accuracy matter more than raw storage volume.
Vidir garment carousel holding bagged hanging garments for uniform and linen storageGarment carouselsUniform programs, athletic departments, and healthcare linen operations across the valley.
Vidir vertical carousel installed in a manufacturing warehouse
Carousels suit high-frequency small-parts picking.
Row of three Vidir vertical lift modules using full clear height in a tall building
Lift modules suit taller buildings and wider tray load ranges.

Vertical Carousel or Vertical Lift Module?

Both bring goods to the operator, and they are not interchangeable. This is the first question we work through on a site visit.

Vertical Carousel Vertical Lift Module (VLM)
How it works Carriers rotate continuously around a track, like a Ferris wheel An extractor travels vertically and pulls the requested tray to the opening
Best clear height Effective in moderate clear heights Scales best in tall buildings
Load flexibility Carriers are a consistent size Trays accommodate varied heights; the machine stores them by measured height
Cube efficiency Good Excellent — dynamic tray spacing eliminates wasted air
Throughput High Very high, especially with dual access openings
Typical use Small parts, tires, wire, garments, records Sheet stock, tooling, dies, mixed-height parts, high-volume picking
Relative cost Lower entry point Higher, with the stronger labor payback at volume
Choose it when Product is uniform and pick rates are steady Clear height is tall, product heights vary, or throughput is high
Side-by-side comparison of a Vidir vertical carousel and a Vidir vertical lift module
Same principle, different mechanics, different fit.
Loaded Vidir VLM tray with cartons and bins showing stored-by-height tray packing
VLM tray extraction: the machine measures and stores trays by height.

Read the full carousel vs. VLM comparison →

Building the Business Case

Vertical storage is capital equipment, and it should be justified with numbers rather than enthusiasm. These are the five lines that carry almost every project we quote.

Value Driver How to Quantify It Why It Usually Beats Expectations
Floor space recovered Square feet freed × your annual cost per square foot Typically 50 to 80 percent of the storage footprint, and it recurs every year
Labor per pick Time-study current picks per hour vs. projected Travel and search time are the bulk of a pick and they largely disappear
Avoided expansion Cost of the lease, move, or building addition you do not do Frequently the single largest number, and the easiest to defend
Inventory accuracy Current cycle-count variance and its carrying cost Software-directed transactions and controlled locations cut variance sharply
Shrink and damage Historic loss on the affected inventory Enclosed, access-controlled storage removes casual loss entirely
Injury and ergonomics Recordables tied to reaching, climbing, and lifting Items arrive at working height — no ladders, no floor-level reaching

Where the payback comes from fastest

  • High pick frequency on a moderate number of SKUs
  • Expensive floor area, or an expansion decision already on the table
  • Tall clear height that current storage does not use
  • Persistent inventory accuracy or shrink problems
  • Storage requiring ladders, climbing, or awkward reaching today
  • Operations struggling to hire and retain warehouse labor
Worker in front of a large Vidir shelving carousel showing the vertical space it recovers
Space, labor, accuracy, shrink, and avoided expansion — count all five.

Site Requirements We Verify Before Quoting

📏

Clear height and obstructions

Usable height is set by the lowest obstruction, not by the peak. Sprinkler mains, ductwork, lighting, and roof structure all get measured and mapped.

🏗

Slab condition and loading

These units are tall and heavy, and the load concentrates. Slab thickness and condition determine whether anchorage is straightforward or needs remediation.

⚡

Power availability

Voltage, phase, and amperage at the intended location. Running new service is a real line item and should be priced up front, not discovered later.

🚚

Delivery and installation access

Door dimensions, dock access, aisle path, and overhead clearance on the route in. Some units are assembled in place for exactly this reason.

🌐

Seismic and local code

Anchorage is engineered to local criteria across Utah, Idaho, Nevada, and Colorado. We supply the documentation your building department will ask for.

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Software and integration

Whether the unit runs standalone or integrates with your WMS or ERP. Deciding this early avoids a second project six months after go-live.

Salt Lake City Service Areas

Area Coverage
Downtown Salt Lake City 5 minutes from our office
West Valley City 15 minutes
Sandy and Draper 10 minutes
Murray and Midvale 5 minutes
South Jordan and Riverton 15 minutes
Airport industrial corridor 20 minutes
Bountiful and Davis County 20 minutes
Tooele 40 minutes
Provo and Utah County 45 minutes
Vidir medical supplies carousel for hospital central supply and sterile storage
Healthcare, dealership, distribution, and manufacturing installs across the region.

What local coverage actually buys you

Automated storage is only as good as the support behind it. A carousel that is down is not storage
— it is a locked box with your inventory inside.

Because Salt Lake City is our headquarters, engineering, sales, and service technicians are all here. That is the practical difference between a machine restored the same day and one waiting on a technician flying in.

We also handle the parts of a project that are not equipment: layout drawings, seismic anchorage documentation, power coordination, freight and rigging, operator training, and the preventive maintenance schedule afterward.

How a Project Runs

1

Discovery call

What you store, how often it is picked, what your current storage looks like, and what is driving the project — space, labor, accuracy, or an expansion decision.

2

Site visit

We measure clear height and obstructions, check slab and power, and confirm delivery access at your Salt Lake City facility.

3

Layout and equipment selection

Carousel or lift module, unit count, carrier or tray configuration, access opening height, and software approach — with a drawing showing how it lands in your building.

4

Quote and ROI review

Equipment, freight, installation, and anchorage, alongside the space and labor case so you can defend the capital request internally.

5

Engineering and permitting support

Anchorage design to local seismic criteria plus the documentation your building department needs.

6

Delivery and installation

Typically one to three days on site once equipment arrives, scheduled around your operating hours.

7

Training and handover

Operator training at the machine, software configuration, and load-in of your inventory into locations.

8

Preventive maintenance

A scheduled maintenance program so service is planned. Unplanned downtime on an automated system always costs more than the maintenance visit would have.

Shop Online at MaterialHandling-USA.com

Shelving, carts, bins, and storage accessories that pair with a vertical storage project can be ordered online. Vertical storage equipment is quoted per layout.

Vertical Storage Applications in Salt Lake City

Vidir vertical carousels, vertical lift modules, and hospital bed lifts solve different inventory problems depending on what is stored and how it moves. Here are the use cases we see most often across the Salt Lake Valley.

Distribution and 3PL Pallet-Position RecoveryIn the airport and I-215 corridor, where every pallet position is contested, a vertical system can consolidate slow-moving or small-cube SKUs so floor positions go back to fast-moving pallet flow.
Technology and Medical Device Component StoragePoint of the Mountain facilities with high clear height but limited floor plate are good candidates for a vertical lift module that uses the building's vertical volume to store components and work-in-process kits.
Sheet Metal, Tooling, and Long Material StorageWest Valley City manufacturing and fabrication shops storing sheet metal, tooling, and long stock can use vertical storage to get dense items off the floor and deliver them to an operator at working height on request.
Hospital and Lab Supply StorageDowntown and University district hospitals, research labs, and institutional facilities with no room to expand can recover floor area for supplies and equipment by moving inventory into an enclosed vertical unit.
Dealership Tire and Parts Storage →Sandy, Draper, and south valley automotive dealerships and service operations with tire and parts storage problems can move seasonal tire sets and small parts into a vertical carousel instead of stacking on the shop floor.
Wire, Cable, and Reel StorageElectrical contractors and maintenance shops storing wire, cable, or reels can use a wire carousel to keep spools organized and deliver them to a single access point instead of digging through shelving.
Hospital Bed and Equipment LiftsFacilities handling hospital beds or bulky medical equipment in limited space can use a dedicated lift system to move and store equipment vertically rather than dedicating floor area to it.
Records and Small Parts ConsolidationInstitutional and office operations with scattered small-parts or records storage can consolidate it into one enclosed, software-tracked unit to improve accuracy and reduce search time.

Recent Regional Projects Near Salt Lake City

We do not yet have a published Vidir vertical carousel or lift module case study specific to Salt Lake City, so here are the closest related projects in the region, drawn from the same goods-to-person storage family serving similar industrial and institutional buyers.

Wire and Cable Spool Vertical Carousel →Englewood, ColoradoAn electrical contractor stores building wire on a motorized vertical wire carousel, consolidating spool storage into one compact footprint.
Jet Engine Maintenance Stores Wire Carousel →Phoenix, ArizonaAn aerospace maintenance facility organizes wire and cable spool storage for its maintenance stores using a compact, secured vertical wire carousel.
Dealership Seasonal Tire Carousel →Fishers, IndianaA dealership installed a vertical tire carousel with a security gate to store seasonal tire sets in a compact footprint.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where exactly is Material Handling USA in Salt Lake City?
Our office is at 1271 E 3900 S, Salt Lake City, UT 84124 — centrally located in the valley with direct access to I-15 and I-215. Salt Lake City is our headquarters, not a satellite office, so engineering, sales, and service all sit here.
Can you do a same-day site visit?
Usually yes. Because we are local, we can typically schedule a same-day or next-day site visit anywhere in the Salt Lake metro area. Call (800) 326-4403.
How quickly can a carousel be installed in Salt Lake City?
Installation itself typically runs one to three days once equipment arrives. Equipment lead times are normally 8 to 16 weeks depending on configuration. We schedule installation around your production or service hours to keep downtime minimal.
Do you provide ongoing service and maintenance in the valley?
Yes. Our service technicians are based in Salt Lake City and provide preventive maintenance, repairs, and emergency response throughout the valley. Local technicians are the practical difference between a machine down for hours and one down for days.
What seismic requirements apply in Utah?
The Wasatch Front carries significant seismic design loading, and vertical storage units are tall and heavy. Anchorage and structural attachment are engineered to local criteria on every installation, and we handle the documentation your building department will ask for.
Will a carousel fit in our building?
That is what the site visit determines. We measure clear height, check for obstructions such as sprinkler mains and ductwork, verify slab condition and power availability, and confirm access for delivery and installation. Many Salt Lake buildings have far more usable height than the current storage layout uses.

Talk With a Vertical Storage Specialist in Salt Lake City

Tell us what you store and what your floor area costs, and we will model the space and labor case for your Salt Lake City facility. Free design consultation — call (800) 326-4403 or request a quote.

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