Order boom due to Covid-19 requires logistics expansion

Covid-19 has boosted sales and increased logistics requirements enormously for The Competec Group, a Swiss eComm firm. In order to meet the demand, a system consisting of three AutoStore systems was upgraded within a very short time.

After the first installation of what was then the world's largest AutoStore system in 2012, a second and a third AutoStore system have followed to date, which together offer 375,380 container storage locations and are operated by 318 robots. In order to cope with the current pandemic-related order boom, this capacity has now been expanded by a further 40,000 containers and 48 robots – an investment of around 1.53 million euro.

14 days

“I have been in online trading since 1994, but I have never experienced a situation like this before,” says Roland Brack, founder and owner of Competec, and underlines, “I am very pleased that Swisslog has been able to support us so quickly, enabling us to meet the extraordinary demand.” Within just fourteen days after the order was placed in March, new robots were already being deployed in the existing system. And in a period of only three months, the entire upgrade of the third AutoStore system, including the grid, containers and workstations, was put into operation. Go-live was in June this year.

“It was a personal concern of ours to provide quick and uncomplicated help in order to maintain Competec's special delivery capability, especially during the pandemic.” says Swisslog’s Daniel Hauser. Services, such as next day delivery if the order is placed before 17:00 the day before, will remain in place.

Competec and Swisslog have enjoyed a long and fruitful partnership that is an important pillar in the online retailer's growth story. The Competec Group has an annual turnover of around 763 million euro.

For more information, visit www.swisslog.com