Active Ants expands to the UK. Country Director Khalil Ashong: “We’re alive”

Twelve years on from the big launch in 2010, Active Ants has established itself as one of the top e-fulfilment providers in the European market. The success of the four existing locations in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany is based on a well proven formula: a mixture of disruptive innovation and automation. Next up is the UK, with a brand-new 252000 square feet facility in Brackmills Northampton.

Khalil Ashong was appointed Country Director. “We’re building every day and waiting to be told by the builders when we can open officially. We're already testing for our first customer, so we're alive.”

In a conversation with FashionUnited, the fulfilment veteran spoke on the expansion, the ever-growing UK e-commerce market and best practice fulfilment strategies that brands will need to secure a slice of the pie.

You’re a seasoned logistics professional. What is your story?

“My career has been one based on learning on the job. I'm one of those people who just kind of fell into the job. I went to drive a van for a few weeks and on the fifth day, they asked me to help them in the office. I never got back in the van after that. I come from more traditional logistics – was there for nearly thirty nineteen years in different roles. I’ve been looking after large clients like Samsung, working on lots of different aspects of their logistics supply chain and helping them run big teams.

Active Ants was an opportunity to help building something in a very niche corner of what you would call e-fulfilment. It's a very different challenge, because in terms of people, there isn't that much.

The new facility is fully equipped with robots. Do people still have a place in the new facility?

Essentially, we have machines that make up empty shipping boxes, that pick the stock that we need to put into those boxes, and machines that print customized advertising on our white boxes as they come out. And then we have robots called rangers that move these items between each stage of the process. So, the human intervention is actually in the picking station, where a person is moving the item from the storage location into the empty box, and that's it. And we need people who manage different types of automation because as you know, machines break down.

Often when I talk to people about the automation, they raise a moral question: so, you’re letting the robots take over. And I say: well, no, the robots are working alongside our human colleagues which gives me the opportunity to go and do more skilled work. The robots just do the repetitive monotonous work.”

The UK is expected to have 60 million e-commerce users and internet sales make up 24.2 percent of total retail sales in the country. Do you see this trend continue?

“Yes, the markets in the UK have grown. I think that trend is going to carry on. We had a bit of a spike in 2020, but I discourage my clients from using 2020 as a measure for anything. A lot of what we're experiencing now was gonna happen anyway, but I think it's been accelerated by the pandemic.

I did research in some previous roles and there was always a move towards buying things at home. The main change in consumer behavior is that over the last couple of years, there seems to be a hunger for more immediacy. Where five years ago, people were happy to buy something online and wait a week, now, most people are looking at who's offering 24-hour delivery. The patience to wait for the item you've purchased is no longer there.”

Advanced e-commerce markets demand advanced fulfilment practices. What should fashion brands look for in a provider?

“First, accuracy. The challenge with fashion companies is often getting the customer’s order wrong. Fashion companies have lots of SKUs – each size is a different SKU. That’s why we are very proud of our nearly zero error margin. You'll find the automation that we deploy exists already in some other warehousing operations here in the UK. But our unique selling point is linking those pieces of automation together in a way that we're quick and also accurate. That is really important for the consumer journey.

You also need the right arrangements with delivery companies. We are keen on giving our clients the best option. So, we don't restrict the client to one. What our system does, is it takes a very bird's eye view on every single parcel. We'll look at the rates that we have available and then we'll say to our clients: for this type of parcel, we recommend this. And the rates change, so it gives clients a lot of dynamism.”

Is there a place for sustainability in automated fulfilment?

“At Active Ants we're certainly doing our best. We've got nearly a thousand solar panels on the roof up here. For the first couple of years, all our electricity generation will be green.

Because of how our systems work, and the fact that they're optimized by algorithms and processes, there's very little waste. The normal way of doing this is by using large volumes of people and conveyor belts. They are very hungry, electricity wise, and using people means that you're not optimizing your process. There's a lot of cardboard waste. Robots do their work in more of a batch way. If they are programmed to do 50 orders an hour for example, they wait until 50 orders are present.”

About Active Ants

Active Ants was founded in 2010 with the idea of making e-fulfilment more accurate and efficient through strong innovation and automation. Founders Jeroen Dekker and Jean Lahaye started their e-commerce careers as directors of the very first Dutch webshop. In 2011, they set up Active Ants with a strong vision: to create the ultimate fulfilment service with the help of far-reaching robotisation and smart software.