Ocado plans to develop automation past grocery sector with 6 River Methods acquisition
The British automation supplier Ocado Group is ready so as to add new instruments to its catalog after buying autonomous cell robotic (AMR) maker 6 River Methods (6RS) from Shopify, the corporate mentioned Thursday.
Phrases of the deal weren’t disclosed, however Shopify initially purchased 6 River Methods in 2019 for $450 million.
Yesterday’s sale was a part of Shopify’s resolution to unload its Shopify Logistics arm to San Francisco-based logistics platform supplier Flexport. In accordance with Shopify, shedding its bodily logistics capabilities will permit it to focus extra sharply on offering its commerce platform for retailers at a time when synthetic intelligence (AI) will quickly start to behave as “a copilot for entrepreneurship.”
For its buy worth, Ocado positive factors an organization that has supplied its “Chuck” AMRs to greater than 70 clients and over 100 warehouses worldwide.
Ocado plans to make use of Massachusetts-based 6RS’ collaborative fulfilment options to develop into extra markets past its core experience within the e-commerce grocery sector. “We’re delighted to welcome new colleagues to the Ocado household. 6 River Methods brings thrilling new IP and prospects to the broader Ocado expertise property, in addition to priceless industrial and R&D experience in non-grocery retail segments,” James Matthews, CEO of Ocado Expertise, mentioned in a launch.
Particularly, Ocado will achieve the power to enter new progress markets similar to basic merchandise retail, attire, well being and sweetness, and third get together logistics (3PL), in keeping with an evaluation of the deal by Ash Sharma, managing director at Work together Evaluation. These sectors are all in search of options to resolve their issues with labor shortages, and 6RS’ “individual to items” robots can meet that want by helping human employees in choosing objects and instances in achievement facilities, Sharma mentioned.
