NMC Healthcare unveils new logistics centre in Dubai Investments Park

The need for expanding NMC Trading's warehouse capacity has been brought about by a rapidly expanding range of new products across all divisions, which has increased by 12% since December 2011.

With the commissioning of the new Logistics Centre, NMC Trading will add another 20% of additional warehousing space and reduce the load on the existing facilities, increase inventory holding capacity and pave the way for additional products to be added to the distribution business.

Speaking on the occasion of the opening ceremony, Binay Shetty, Chief Operating Officer, NMC Healthcare and NMC Trading, said, "Last year the company's strategic team closely evaluated the evolving warehousing and distribution needs and signalled a logistics expansion to cater to the growing needs of the FMCG and food stuff divisions. The new expansion will help NMC Trading's further expansion by expanding its warehousing and distribution capabilities."

Dr. B R Shetty, Managing Director and CEO of NMC Healthcare, explained the choice of Dubai Investments Park for the new Logistics Centre. "Distribution is a location-critical business and Dubai Investments Park was our ideal choice because of its proximity to Emirates Road, thus providing quicker access to all the emirates and still within easy reach of the important Dubai market."

He added, ""With a vast quantity of products imported into the country, large distribution enterprises such as ours require an efficient and cost effective transhipment area. The NMC Logistics Centre introduces more automation to our business, and serves as a state-of-the-art storage conduit for receiving a wide range of products from different countries and moving them as required to our individual warehouses across the country."

The NMC Logistics Centre is built along the lines of a 'warehouse within a warehouse' concept. Three distinct areas - cold stores, bulk stores and retail picking store - are spread across the 65,000 sq. ft. of new warehousing capacity. A segmented warehouse enables storage and distribution of different types of commodities that require stringent temperature control, storage of large volumes for cross docking and a retail selection area for smaller orders.

The warehouse combines a cold storage area with specially demarcated sections for frozen food items such as meat (-18°C) and coolers for other food stuff (2-8°C). It also contains the first electronically operated mobile stacker unit of its kind in the country, which improves storage capacity and facilitates selection of items required for delivery.