A setting fit for a bold ambition

I WAS lucky enough to go on a tour of the new site. Highlights included an ‘immersive cave’ which is a representation of an Exotec driven Decathlon warehouse, projected on three sides of the room. A voice narrates the material flow and explains how robots handle each task. There is also a museum highlighting milestones of the company’s short but very eventful history, or ‘exostory’, if you will.

The new building serves as a strategic hub to support the company’s next phase of growth. Spanning 25,000 square metres, Imaginarium is home to more than 700 employees from design, production and support teams on a single site. With a car park on the roof, its layout was designed to enhance operational efficiency by optimising flows, circulation and proximity between functions, supported by a central hub space connecting all areas of activity. The new HQ replaces offices in a number of different locations in France.

Since its founding ten years ago, Exotec has deliberately built its solutions by combining engineering, software and industrial capabilities in Europe, for customers worldwide. Imaginarium is a core asset in the development, industrialisation and long-term evolution of Exotec’s solutions.

The production area, exceptionally clean and known perhaps slightly ironically as ‘The Forge’, smells only very faintly of the grease, metal and fire typical of factories in the material handling sector. Yet, production plays a central role within Imaginarium. The headquarters includes an 8560 sq m production area equipped with 11 operational Exotec systems, used for manufacturing, testing and continuous improvement of the company’s solutions.

Exotec CEO and co-founder Romain Moulin, says: “The Imaginarium represents a major technological and industrial investment. By integrating R&D, production and operations within our headquarters, we strengthen our ability to develop robust, scalable solutions that are closely aligned with our customers’ requirements.”

This integrated model supports the development of solutions that closely combine hardware and software, and are designed for deployment in complex and evolving logistics environments.

The France-based company continues to accelerate its global expansion, with recent customer projects and announcements in South Korea with MUSINSA, and in Central Europe with Renault. Nearly half of Exotec’s growth comes from the USA, with companies such as PepsiCo.

The inauguration also marked the first edition of Exosummit, bringing together Exotec’s customers, partners and broader ecosystem.

Renault Group aftersales

A key speaker at this event was Renault Group director of aftersales supply chain Xavier Lhors, who presented on the installation of an Exotec system at a 258,000 sq ft automated warehouse in Villeroy, France and the upcoming installation of a similar system in Germany.

“By installing the Exotec system in France, we were able to push order cutoff out by one hour, as well as bringing all of the French aftersales focused operations into one building without having to invest in more warehousing. The system achieved ROI in less than two years.”

Renault Group has a full service contract with Exotec, with the supplier guaranteeing agreed availability of parts.

Xavier continued: “There is no magic, you have to prepare very carefully and do not underestimate the importance of change management, there is logical fear of robots on the shop floor. But in truth, now the staff are very proud of their warehouse.”Exotec is equipping Renault Deutschland AG with its Skypod system to modernise its logistics capabilities at its Brühl site. The warehouse will be equipped with a total of 89 Skypod robots to deliver a planned throughput of over 1,600 containers per hour. The anticipated go-live is in June.

The summit also included a talk on e-grocery, where Nomagic’s Marie-Axelle Loustalot-Forest said the next breakthrough in retail logistics was likely to be autonomous delivery.

“The more more you automate, you more you save. It’s all important in making the online grocery business more sustainable from a financial perspective.”

Holland & Barrett group CFO Vineta Bajaj added: “The hard thing to balance is making money while keeping costs down. A lot of grocers thought let’s build a big CFC far away from the city and do next day deliveries.

“But when you have people shopping more frequently, it means the fixed approach of a centralised DC doesn’t cover fixed costs. Grocers are looking to move from the rigidity of CFCs to pick-from-store, or mini hubs, trying to get more sales through the square footage faster.”

European logistics

Exotec CTO co-founder Renaud Heitz, says: “We chose Lille of the location of the Imaginarium because it is central to European logistics, and close to the UK and sea ports.

“We will use the facility to coordinate the business globally and hold events.”

The opening of the new HQ coincides with Exotec’s ongoing transition from OEM to solution provider, a move from robot provider to full robot-driven warehouse automation. This includes the incorporation of technologies such as palletisation, depalletisation, carton erecting and closing, plus software.

Romain explains: “One time we lost a deal, the end user said ‘you know your robots, you don’t know our processes’. That is what we have changed.”

Renaud adds: “The facility gives us a smooth blend of tech and manufacturing. It is integration, not vertical, but integration from idea to solution. We see this as key to staying ahead of the competition, and there is competition from all corners of the world. We think we can innovate faster and are spending 10% of revenue on R&D. The building is a tool to help us write our next chapter.”