ASKO invests in Solwr
From development partner to owner
After many years of close collaboration related to the development of the warehouse robots Grab™ and Sort™, ASKO is now entering the ownership side of Solwr's robotics business, Solwr Robotics AS.
- For us, automation is mainly about reducing production costs, but also about relieving employees of heavy and repetitive tasks. We see a large market potential for these warehouse robots - they require small changes to the infrastructure at the warehouses, and can be incorporated directly into existing operations.
Are Bakken, director of warehouse operations at ASKO.
KEY TAKAWAYS
- ASKO has been an active contributor to the development of Solwr's warehouse robots, and is now entering the ownership side.
As a major logistics player, ASKO has been an active contributor to the development of Solwr's warehouse robots - including through research projects supported by Innovation Norway and the Research Council of Norway.
Illustrative picture of the latest version of Grab, which will be delivered to the market in 2023.
International expansion
- The fact that ASKO is now entering the ownership side confirms that our technology is innovative, that there is a clear market need and, not least, that we have the necessary ability to implement. It also validates our national position, and enables us to carry out our plans for expansion.
Torbjørn Krogen, CEO at Solwr.
Based on the collaboration with ASKO, the robots from Solwr have come on the radar of major international logistics players and the collaboration has given free access to a real operating environment for piloting and prototype testing at ASKO.
90% of all grocery logistics globally is carried out in manually operated warehouses and this provides great opportunities in the market.
The warehouse robots Grab™ and Sort™
Solwr currently offers two different warehouse robots, Grab™ and Sort™. The robots reduce both operating costs and HSE challenges linked to heavy, repetitive work. Grab™ is an autonomous picking and placing robot for warehouse operations. The innovative robot takes care of order picking in the warehouse, and enables automation in existing warehouses, without interrupt ongoing production. This reduces risk, and not least the need to build and invest in new warehouse buildings
new infrastructure.
The company's analyzes show the potential to halve the total weight that is picked manually in a traditional warehouse when introducing Grab™. Furthermore, they estimate a halving of the cost per package picked.
Sort™ is a sorting robot that sorts load carriers returned from customers, primarily pallets.
Warehouse robot Sort™.
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