Four warehouses, one material flow

Kerschgens stores more than 24,000 items in 36,000 square meters of hall space, and the company can handle about 300 tons of material per day. The service goes far beyond the classic trade. “What is crucial for our customers are above all quality, availability, and delivery time,” says Managing Director Heinz Herbort.

Kerschgens Werkstoffe & Mehr GmbH has been trading in steel, stainless steel, and non-ferrous metals since it was founded exactly 150 years ago. Today, the family-run company in its sixth generation employs around 220 people at two locations and supplies customers from the steel and metal construction, mechanical engineering, construction industry, and other areas of the metal processing industry. The range includes beams, pipes, sheets, and bar steel. In Stolberg near Aachen, around 36,000 square meters of hall space are now available. The operation complements sales with processing and service offerings, from sawing and drilling to burning and milling. Since September 2022, the former Carlier Blechbearbeitungs GmbH has been part of Kerschgens. Under the Carlier brand, the company consolidates its sheet metal expertise and assembly production.

Kerschgens consolidates its warehouse processes

To optimize processes and leverage synergies, Kerschgens wanted to dissolve three nearby external warehouses and centralize them in a new hall. Therefore, the company was looking for a solution that covers both the storage of sheets and long goods for trade and sheet metal production with forming, welding, and surface treatment. The new Hall 2, with 12,000 square meters, houses the sheet metal warehouse and creates additional space for pipes and bars. “Our storage and material flow processes were recently characterized by the need to first bring everything to our headquarters in order to pick and deliver it from there,” says Dominik Garbrecht, who is responsible for the trade operation in the new building at Kerschgens. “With the new central warehouse, we now have everything consolidated in one location. This reduces time losses and costs.”

In the older Hall 1, the focus is on the classic steel trade with construction steel, profiles, and beams. There, Kerschgens has been operating the “Unicompact 3.0” honeycomb warehouse from Kasto with 2,896 cassette slots since 2009. A ten-fold circulation station as well as two four-fold circulation stations and a longitudinal station connect storage, picking, and provisioning. Thanks to direct rail access, a special truck can pull the delivered wagons with long goods directly into the hall. In 2023, the system received a retrofit from Kasto for electrics and motors. This modernization ensures the long-term performance, process security, and spare parts availability of the existing warehouse. At the same time, the advantages of the “Unicompact” are retained: high storage density, automated material flow based on the “goods to person” principle, and fast cassette changes for short provisioning times.

Since 2016, Kasto's “Unibloc A” stacking system with 803 slots has complemented the honeycomb warehouse in Hall 1. Four longitudinal stations and an automatic crane with load stabilization support dense storage. The expanded plant landscape and almost 20 years of collaboration, during which Kerschgens further developed its warehouse technology together with Kasto, introduced complex automation solutions, and modernized existing systems, provided the metal specialist with a reliable foundation for planning the new building. “The company has always impressed us during this time with its competence in finding individual solutions for our requirements,” explains Heinz Herbort.

Two Systems for the New Hall

For long products made of stainless steel and aluminum, Kerschgens chose the overhead storage system "Unitop," which became operational in September 2025. It stores pipes, angles, flat, round, and square material on 677 spaces. A material pusher chain (MPK) holds pre-commissioned material for shipping and further transportation. A longitudinal station connects the metal band saw "Kastowin A 3.6" directly to the "Unitop" and provides the necessary long goods for cutting. This integration places the saw in the automated material flow. The coordinated interaction of control, short auxiliary times, and precise material feed accelerates order processing.

The second core of the new building is the longitudinal storage system "Uniline" from Kasto for sheets. Since January 2026, Kerschgens has been storing steel, galvanized steel, stainless steel, aluminum, and perforated sheets here, in formats ranging from small to large, weighing up to 900 kilograms, and with thicknesses from 0.5 to 20 millimeters. The facility has 1,734 cassette spaces, five longitudinal carriages, including one with an integrated lifting device, as well as an in-and-out storage station. Steel construction and the aisle can be extended when capacity demand increases.

The new building with the "Unitop" and "Uniline" storage systems, as well as the integrated material flow solution, shortens search and provisioning paths and improves material availability. "As a result, our processes in the hall have accelerated," says Dominik Garbrecht. Moreover, employees rarely have to move sharp-edged sheets manually and can focus on controlling the system and handling special cases. Thanks to centralization, Kerschgens has expanded its delivery program and can flexibly enlarge it in the future if needed. Additionally, the company has optimized the procedures for storage, commissioning, packaging, and preparation for loading. The stock packages are readily available nearby, and a crane transports them into the storage. The sheet metal warehouse can be expanded by more than 1,000 spaces when demand is higher.

With the new hall, Kerschgens continues the gradual development of its storage technology. The company maintains proven, modernized facilities in operation and creates additional capacities for long goods and sheets. Around the "Uniline," a material flow solution from Kasto integrates storage, laser cutting, and commissioning into a seamless process. This enables the metal trader to expand its delivery program and keep materials centrally available for trade and manufacturing.