By digitizing the order picking process, bakery Castaño has considerably increased both productivity and ac- curacy. The Chilean company has installed Pick to Light for order picking of packaged, long-life bread products and Put to Light for the distribution of daily fresh pastry products and other food products. Co-owner Cristobal Castaño: “We now have much more control over the process.”
The shops of Castaño form an inseparable part of the street scene in Santiago. People constantly walk in for a sweet pastry, fresh salad or hearty empanada. Because the products of Castaño are appreciated, the number of stores in the Chilean capital and surroundings is growing. The hundredth store was opened last summer. “But we also supply fresh products and pastry to other retail stores, plus we produce various packaged bread products that we sell through supermarket chains in Chile, including those of Walmart, ” says Cristobal Castaño, who manages the company together with his brothers. The production for the Castaño and other stores shows major differences with the production for the supermarket chains. In the first case it concerns 150 plus locations and an extensive range of more than 200 daily fresh items with a shelf life of one or two days. On the contrary, the company supplies supermarkets – 600 plus locations throughout the country – with a range of up to 80 longer-lasting, packaged items. Think sandwich bread, pita bread, hamburger bread and ready-made pizza crusts. “Around fifty percent of the products we make in Santiago go to the supermarket chains. The rest to our own branches and other customers like Starbucks,” explains Castaño.