New owner invests in massive expansion of Sanistål's robot warehouse

Sanistål has launched an ambitious growth strategy after the company was acquired in December by the Swedish company Ahlsell, which is the leading distributor of products and tools for professional customers in the Nordics. The new owner has just approved the expansion of the robotics facility, which will be one of the largest investments ever made in Sanistål. "We are now starting a massive expansion of our AutoStore system so that we can scale up our business and implement our growth plans," says Claudio Christensen, CEO of Sanistål and country manager of Ahlsell Denmark

One of the advantages of the robotic facility is that it can relatively easily be expanded as Sanistål grows. There has been a significant need for this since the company opened its first AutoStore facility less than two years ago. "Our robotic facility has been a great success. It increases our level of automation and makes us much more cost-effective, and the facility is a crucial prerequisite for us to expand with new product ranges," says Supply Chain Director Stephan Schuler. Sanistål's first robotic facility, which was put into operation in September 2021, contained 48,000 boxes of inventory items. The facility has just been expanded to hold 84,000 boxes, but Sanistål has already decided to undertake yet another expansion. This time, it involves a massive expansion that more than doubles the capacity of the robotic facility from 84,000 to 183,000 boxes of inventory items. This makes Sanistål's AutoStore facility the largest of its kind in Denmark to date

The expansion of the AutoStore system at Sanistål's logistics center in Billund will take place in phases over the next two to three years.

“In the coming years, we will develop and expand our entire business with a lot of new products and new business areas, and therefore we will need significantly more capacity in our robotic system going forward,” says Stephan Schuler.

Once the expansion is fully completed, there will be 160 robots moving around the facility, bringing boxes of goods to special picking stations where employees are ready to pack and send the products to Sanistål's customers.

The significantly larger capacity means that the number of customer lines that the facility can handle will more than double in the next few years.

The first phase of the expansion will be ready in March next year, when a total of 110,000 boxes, 90 robots, and 14 picking stations will be operational.

• Sanistål's AutoStore system is being expanded from approximately 84,000 bins to 183,000 bins of stock items.
• The number of robots will increase from 58 to 160.
• The number of picking stations will rise from 10 to 22.
• The number of customer lines that the system can process will more than double.

Stephan Schuler, Supply Chain Director: 40 97 49 46

June 16, 2023