High-bay LED lighting a Kimberly-Clark distribution centre, gantry, racking and dispatch floor by Lamphouse LED Solutions

Proven on site · South Africa

Kimberly-Clark:
a working DC, properly lit.

When one of the world's biggest hygiene and paper-products manufacturers relit its distribution centre, Lamphouse LED Solutions put high-bay LED over the gantry, the bulk floor and the dispatch aisles: even, glare-controlled light from roof to slab, commissioned around a facility that never stopped shipping. These are our own photos from the floor. Ask us to walk you through the brief, the kit and the result.

Ask us about the project →

· On site

Real warehouse
& logistics work.

Crusader Logistics, Digistics and Kimberly-Clark: distribution floors, narrow-aisle racking and high-bay runs, lit and photographed on real Lamphouse LED Solutions projects. Not stock.

High-bay LED down a tall narrow racking aisle at Crusader Logistics — Crusader Logistics · narrow-aisle racking

Even linear LED down a clad distribution corridor at Digistics — Digistics · distribution corridor

High racking lit by high-bay LED at Digistics — Digistics · high racking

High-bay LED over palletised distribution aisles at Kimberly-Clark — Kimberly-Clark · distribution aisles

01 · The warehouse problem

Three things a warehouse
brief gets wrong.

Warehouse lighting looks like the simplest job in the building, until you read the brief twice. Operators want more lux on the picking faces but fewer fixtures than what's up there, because capex is tight. Those two usually fight each other. Then there's glare: a high-bay aimed for maximum floor lux puts hard light straight into a forklift driver's eyeline on the cross-aisle, which is a safety problem. And the quote you'll get from most suppliers prices the fixtures at day-one output, ignoring the lumen depreciation and dirt losses that quietly drop your aisle lux below spec by year three. We design around all three from the start, so the numbers still hold when the warehouse is dusty and four years old.

02 · The technical envelope

Designed to
SANS 10114.

Every zone in a warehouse has its own lighting requirement: storage isn't picking, picking isn't packing, and the loading dock has its own rules. Our designers work each zone to the South African interior-lighting framework (SANS 10114-1) and the maintained illuminance levels operators actually need on the working plane. Typical design targets below; we tune them to your racking height, throughput and shift pattern.

Zone	Maintained lux (typical)	What drives the spec
Bulk & pallet storage	150-200 lux	Aisle-floor and rack-face visibility for forklift movement and stock ID. Uniformity (U₀ ≥ 0.4) matters more than peak lux.
Narrow-aisle racking	200 lux	Vertical lux on the rack face. Linear optics aimed down the aisle to hold uniformity at height.
Order picking & sorting	200-300 lux	Label and barcode legibility at speed. Higher CRI helps pickers distinguish stock under colour-coded systems.
Packing & dispatch benches	300-500 lux	Task-grade light on the bench for QC, documentation and damage checks. Often a separate task layer.
Loading docks & bays	150-200 lux	Transition zone, light into the trailer, control glare for reversing vehicles. IP65 near the apron.
Cold store / freezer	150-300 lux	LED rated for sustained low-temperature operation; sealed IP-rated bodies; instant strike with no warm-up after door cycling.
Yard & external hardstand	20-50 lux	Floodlight and high-mast for vehicle movement and security. Photocell or timeclock control; SANS exterior + security brief.

Lux figures are typical maintained-illuminance design targets for guidance, aligned to SANS 10114-1 and common warehouse practice. Final values are confirmed per site against racking height, mounting height, surface reflectances, throughput and the agreed maintenance factor. Ask for the Relux report with your proposal.

03 · Where it applies

Six warehouse jobs
we do regularly.

Distribution centres, 3PL operations, manufacturing stores, cold chain, retail back-of-house, the building changes but the discipline doesn't. Design first, supply the right kit, install with our PM running point.

A / Retrofit

Metal-halide / HID retrofit

The classic job, rip out ageing 400W high-bays burning power and dropping lumens, replace with designed LED at a fraction of the load. Phased after-hours so the floor never stops.

B / Racking

Narrow-aisle & VNA racking

Linear high-bay with aisle-aimed optics that hold vertical lux on the rack face at 10-14m, without over-lighting the gangways. Layout follows your racking grid.

C / Cold chain

Cold stores & freezers

Sealed, IP-rated LED engineered for sustained sub-zero operation, with instant strike after door cycling and no mercury to dispose of. Critical for food, pharma and 3PL cold chain.

D / Docks

Loading docks & canopies

Light into the trailer, controlled glare for reversing vehicles, IP65 bodies for the weather at the apron. The transition zone where most dock incidents happen.

E / Controls

Sensor zoning & controls

Occupancy and daylight sensors that drop unused aisles to standby and harvest rooflight where you have it. We spec controls only where the payback is real.

F / Yard

Yard, hardstand & high-mast

Floodlight and high-mast for vehicle movement, container handling and perimeter security, photocell or timeclock controlled, built for the SA sun by day and the wind at night.

04 · Our customers

Names on our
loading docks.

A few of the logistics, distribution, warehousing and cold-chain operations we've lit, designed, supplied and installed by our own team.

+& more

A selection of clients we've supplied and/or installed for.

05 · Why Lamphouse

What changes when a
designer takes the brief.

Plenty of companies will sell you a high-bay off a shelf. A handful will design the layout. Fewer still will install and commission it properly. We do all three under one roof, which is why logistics and distribution clients keep coming back for the next site.

Modelled to your racking grid

We build the warehouse in Relux off your CAD, run two or three optic options, and pick the beam that holds uniformity down the aisle without glaring the forklift drivers. You get the lux report and the payback model alongside the quote, finance signs off the same week.

B-BBEE Level 2, docs ready same day

Procurement teams in 3PL, retail supply chains and listed corporates can buy from us without an exception process. Certificate current, structure real, documentation in your inbox the day you ask. No friction at the spreadsheet stage.

Commissioned around your shift pattern

Our project manager phases the install after-hours and over weekends so the floor never stops picking. Crews work to our commissioning standard, and if you want a maintenance SLA after we leave site, that's on the table too.

06 · In the field

Distribution warehouse retrofit, payback in 22 months, glare zero.

Case study · Logistics

Crusader Logistics distribution warehouse with pallets and high-bay LED overhead — Crusader Logistics · distribution warehouse

"Lux on the floor went up 35%. The energy bill dropped 60%. And the forklift drivers stopped complaining about glare. That's about as good as a brief outcome gets."

A national distribution warehouse swapped ageing metal-halide high-bays for LED in a single phased rollout. The brief looked simple, until you read it twice. They wanted more lux on the picking aisles, fewer fixtures than what was up there (capex was tight), and zero glare for the forklift drivers on the cross-aisles. The first two usually fight each other.

Our designer modelled the warehouse in Relux off the existing CAD, ran three fixture options with different optics, and went with the beam pattern that put the light on the work, without pushing it into a forklift driver's line of sight at eye level. The procurement team got payback modelling alongside the spec, so finance signed off the same week. And we commissioned over weekends, so the warehouse never stopped picking.

Whether it's bulk storage, a narrow-aisle racking run or an outdoor yard, the approach is the same: design first, supply second, install with our PM running point. Brief us on your site → (Figures above are composite from typical Lamphouse warehouse retrofits, happy to walk through a specific named project under NDA.)

Transport depot · Cape Town Golden Arrow / HCI Depot and facility lighting upgrade for one of South Africa's largest bus operators. A published Lamphouse LED Solutions project.

Aviation · Gauteng OR Tambo International Large-facility lighting at Africa's busiest airport, apron-adjacent and back-of-house environments. Published Lamphouse project.

References on request Your sector, your site We'll connect you with a comparable warehouse or distribution reference, and walk through the numbers under NDA where the client requires it. Request references →

Got a warehouse you've been
meaning to re-light?

Send us the basics: a floor or racking plan if you've got one (a rough sketch is fine), the ceiling height, what's currently up there, your capex envelope and when you'd want it done by. We'll come back inside the week with a Relux lux model, a costed bill of materials, an install plan phased around your shifts, and a payback that's honest about year-three losses. Or just call and talk it through first.

Brief our team → Call Joburg · 011 608 2565 → Call Cape Town · 021 551 6322 → Call Durban · 031 564 0710 →

info@thelamphouse.co.za
Mon-Thu 07:30-17:00 · Fri 07:30-16:00

Kimberly-Clark:a working DC, properly lit.

Real warehouse& logistics work.

Three things a warehousebrief gets wrong.

Designed toSANS 10114.

Six warehouse jobswe do regularly.