A NORTH-EAST company is helping one of the country's biggest soft drinks manufacturers to keep track on its hundreds of products.

Agility Systems, at Lingfield Point, Darlington, is working on a phased project for Calypso, updating its manufacturing, inventory and warehouse facilities.

Calypso is investing in a pallet-tracking system on its 128 product lines, including Calypso Cups and Umbro Isotonic Bottles.

The system uses radio terminals to follow the pallets through the manufacturing process and supply chain.

Calypso, based in Wrexham, moves up to 10,000 pallets a month and needed a system that recognised and recorded what had been produced and moved to finished stock.

Terry Nall, Agility Systems general manager, said: "The volume of pallets that Calypso processes means it is vital for them to have instant access to accurate and reliable data in real-time.

"We are working closely with the team at Calypso to ensure that we implement this new system and provide all the required training and supervision at the right place and time to enable them to maximise the benefits of the new solution."

James Holmes, head of information technology for Calypso, added: "This is a major new project for us.

"This investment will allow us to track every single pallet as it moves through our manufacturing and warehousing.

"Eventually, when all phases are completed, we will have full traceability from raw material issue to finished goods delivered to the customer from a simple report from the data created by the Agility solution."

Agility, which was established in 1996, specialises in warehouse efficiency, logistics and information management.