Expansion leads Carrefour-Atacadão group to invest in redesign of its intralogistics

Over the past year, Atacadão, part of Carrefour, has been accelerating its expansion process throughout Brazil. To keep its 240 stores constantly supplied, investing in the intralogistics structure has become essential. To that end, the supermarket giant decided to modernize the battery charging rooms of its distribution centers with intelligent equipment that is compatible with the various electric forklifts in its fleet as well as capable of charging with more flexibility and energy efficiency.

At Atacadão‘s distribution centers, a fleet of more than 1,000 electric forklifts of different power and size ensures a fast and emission-free flow of goods. Operating the fleet was a challenge in the past, as the different traction batteries could solely be charged with compatible chargers, which increased costs and complexity accordingly.

To simplify battery charging, the company opted for a solution from Fronius. Thanks to automatic voltage detection, the Selectiva 4.0 chargers allow different lead-acid batteries and voltage classes to be charged with one and the same device. In addition to greater flexibility also the energy efficiency of the charging process could be increased. Marco Tarantino, maintenance manager at Atacadão, points out that compared to 50 Hz technology „the Selectiva chargers allow faster and more efficient charging. As a result, we have now more forklifts operating while reducing our energy consumption.“